As the Chair of the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group, which consists of Finance Ministers from the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Ghana has urged world leaders to establish an effective financial framework tailored to climate challenges.
This initiative aims to enhance the implementation of climate adaptation and mitigation measures in countries facing vulnerability.
Additionally, it seeks to transform the approach to addressing climate-related debt issues and provide support to nations in need of funding for resilience-building and climate adaptation endeavors.
“We must develop powerful coalitions to fight for humanity as we coordinate our efforts to respond positively to the need for the development of a fit-for-climate global financial system,” Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said.
Ofori-Atta was speaking at the two-day New Global Financing Pact summit, organised by the French government.
“It’s critical that we scale up the innovative climate financing mechanisms and speed up climate action to ensure that we maintain the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature limit,” he said.
The Chair of the V20 also called for improved country responsibility in addressing the issues of climate change for global benefit.
The finance minister noted that the world needed, “the kind of leadership the world saw that led to the abolishment of apartheid, the drive behind the civil rights movement, and the development of the Breton Woods institutions.”
He also reiterated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s call for support for global financial system reforms as advanced by the V20 Group of Finance Ministers of the CVF through the recently launched Accra-to-Marrakech Agenda (the A2M).
The Accra-to-Marrakech Agenda is a roadmap by the V20 to work to cement an international coalition behind a fit-for-climate global financial system, culminating at the Marrakech International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Annual Meetings in Marrakech later this year.
The New Global Financing Pact summit is to reconsider the global financial architecture and ways to mobilise financial support for developing and low-income countries facing challenges, including global warming, loss of biodiversity, debt, and pandemics.
It is centred on addressing the financing required to meet the global challenges, and build solidarity amongst countries and all the critical stakeholders, as governments worked collectively towards a just green transition.
The summit brought together Heads of State and government, leaders of major international organisations, representatives of global financial institutions, and private sector and civil society representatives.
At the end of the summit, there was a call for a collective global effort to mobilise additional financial resources from the private sector, including multilateral development banks to support vulnerable countries.
The call for transitioning into a net-zero economy by protecting the planet through shared goods and ensuring clean air, forests, and oceans through systematic transformation was also accentuated.
It was noted that there was the need to stand united in international solidarity and win the battle against poverty by alleviating the debt burden of vulnerable countries through adequate renegotiations, restructuring and repayment.