Ghana: Press zooms in on signing of $50m emission reduction payment agreement, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that the Forestry Commission has signed Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) with Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator Incorporated (Emergent), a US-based non-profit organisation that serves as the convenor and coordinator of the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the Forestry Commission, under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, has signed Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) with Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator Incorporated (Emergent), a US-based non-profit organisation that serves as the convenor and coordinator of the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition.
The agreement will see Ghana receiving payment of up to US$50 million for emission reductions of up to five million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, at a unit price of US$10 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The Agreement, which was signed on Friday, December 1, 2023, on the sidelines of the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), made Ghana the first country, globally, to sign ERPA under the LEAF Coalition for the supply of high-integrity jurisdictional REDD+ emission reductions and removals credit.
Costa Rica, later, also, signed an agreement with Emergent, worth US$14 million, making the two countries the only forest countries to achieve this feat.
The LEAF Coalition was launched in April, 2021 by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and Norway, together with some leading global companies, as a voluntary global coalition to bring together companies and governments, to provide finance for tropical and subtropical forest conservation commensurate with the scale of the climate change challenge.
The Coalition aims to raise global climate ambition and contribute to halting tropical and subtropical deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, by ensuring that tropical and subtropical forest jurisdictions have access to large scale, predictable performance-based finance, to enable them invest in reduced deforestation and sustainable rural development.
The newspaper says that the 2023 Ghana Tourism Investment Summit will take place Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at Labadi Beach Hotel.
The summit will bring together all relevant stakeholders in the tourism value chain to promote the opportunities within the sector and to attract investment.
It is being organised by Ghana Tourism Development Authority (GTDC) under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, in partnership with the Ghana Tourism Authority and other agencies under the Ministry of Tourism.
Notable speakers include the sector minister, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal; the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the World Bank Country Director, Pierre Frank Laporte.
Participants have been drawn from the tourism value chain operators, regulatory and licensing institutions; Financial Advisory Sector, Real Estate, Banking, Insurance, Transport, Aviation, Tourism and Trade Associations, Public Entities and state-owned enterprises.
Other partners include the diplomatic corps, legal practitioners, development partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Some international infrastructure and investment firms from South Africa, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Turkey will also participate in the summit.
A concept note of the summit indicated that the summit seeks to attract attention to the country, and to market its rich and diverse tourism investment opportunities, bring together investors who are seeking avenues for tourism partnerships and promote Ghana as an attractive Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) destination for global foreign investment in tourism.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has explained why he has failed to assent to the two bills which have been considered and duly passed by Parliament.
The bills – Criminal Offences Amendment Bill, 2023, the Criminal Offences 2 Bill, 2023 and the Armed Forces Amendment Bill, 2023 – the President thinks are not in line with the provisions of the 1992 Constitution.
In a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the President said that in as much as he supports the object of the bills, same must pass the constitutional threshold first and foremost.
“The contents of these bills have my support but we need to ensure that they are enacted in line with constitutional order and legislative processes,” the President stated in the letter read on the floor of Parliament in Accra yesterday.
The letter comes on the back of a meeting the President had with the Speaker following the latter’s dissatisfaction with the failure of the President to assent to the bill within the constitutionally accepted days.
The Speaker at plenary on Monday, November 27, directed the table office to strike out the advertised Criminal Offences Amendment Bill from the schedule of the House, because same had been passed and was only awaiting assent from the President.
But the President argued in his letter that “after the thorough consideration and in light of the constitutional issues I pointed out during our meeting, I am unable to assert to these bills.
“The concerns raised are significant and have profound implications for the constitutional integrity for these legislative actions.”
The President held that “any legislation we pass must be in complete alignment with the provisions of our constitution.”
He assured that he would have the bills reintroduced on his behalf in due course.
Acknowledging receipt of the President’s letter, the Speaker said the House would be eager to read the President’s constitutional concerns.
All three bills were sponsored by private members and were passed in 2023.
The newspaper says that the government is committed to deploying targeted policy initiatives to diversify investor base, reduce external dependency and broaden market participation within the securities and exchange sector, Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has said.
He mentioned the development of the framework for domestic credit rating agencies, which would provide impartial assessment of companies and securities, as one of the initiatives.
MrOfori-Atta was speaking at the Ghana Capital Market Conference (GhaCMaC) organised by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Accra on Friday.
Under the theme’Deepening and diversifying Ghana’s Capital Market towards a more resilient financial system’, the conference, which formed part of activities to mark the 25th anniversary of the Commission, aimed at discussing critical issues within the sector to diversify Ghana’s capital market towards making Ghana’s economy more resilient.
As part of the conference, a five-year strategic plan was also launched to deepen and expand markets, enhance market awareness and education, and build the capacity and capability of SEC, while strengthening market infrastructure to develop a robust legal and regulatory framework.
MrOfori-Atta said for a sector that contributed about 14 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and impacted about 10 million of the country’s population, there was a need to ensure that the sector had a more posi¬tive impact on the economy.
He said through the development of Bank of Ghana, the government was facilitating to underwrite the issuance of equity securities, guarantees and strategic support to amplify investment opportunities and bolster economic growth.
The Director-General (D-G) of SEC, Reverend Daniel OgbarmeyTetteh, said the fast-changing financial landscape presented unique challenges to stakeholders of the capital market.
GIK/APA