GHANA HOLDS NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM IN ADVANCE OF

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 001290

DEPARTMENT FOR S/SECC, OES/EGC, OES/PCI, AF/W

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV KGHG EFIN EAID GH
SUBJECT: GHANA HOLDS NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM IN ADVANCE OF
COPENHAGEN

PORTIONS OF THIS CABLE ARE SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION.


1. (U) SUMMARY: On December 2, Ghana held its National Climate
Change Forum in advance of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen.
Environment, Science and Technology Minister Sherry Ayittey
announced that Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills would attend
the Copenhagen Summit. Both the minister and Ghanaian Vice
President John Dramani Mahama made clear that Ghana would seek
substantial financial and technical assistance from the developed
world to cope with the impacts of climate change, whose costs could
reach $300-400 million per year in Ghana. Encouragingly, the VP
also argued that Ghanaians needed to adopt more energy efficient
lifestyles, and he announced that the country would launch a large
scale reforestation and afforestation program in 2010. END
SUMMARY.


2. (U) On December 2, Ghana held its National Climate Change Forum
in preparation for the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.

--------------
Ghana Wants a Fair Deal and Assistance
--------------


3. (U) Environment, Science and Technology Minister Sherry Ayittey
announced that President John Evans Atta Mills would attend the
Copenhagen Summit. She said that Ghana would seek a "fair,
equitable and just deal" at Copenhagen that includes substantial
financial and technical assistance and capacity building from the
developed world to help the country cope with the effects of climate
change. She noted that the costs of mitigating and adapting to
climate change could be in the range of $300-$400 million per year
between 2010 and 2050, including addressing issues of agricultural
practices, water resource management, migration and erosion.

--------------
VP's Keynote Address
--------------


4. (U) In his keynote address, Ghanaian Vice President John Dramani
Mahama began by noting that Africa is responsible for only three
percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but the continent
is a "hotspot" where climate change impacts could be the greatest,
financial resources are already strained, and the current capacity
to cope with the problem is very limited. Accordingly, developed
countries will need to scale up their assistance to developing
countries, including Ghana, to help them undertae climate change
mitigation and adaptation efforts.


5. (U) The VP also repeated familiar Africa Group and G77 demands
that developed countries should commit to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. At the same time,
he argued that Ghanaians should be encouraged in the coming years to
adopt more environmentally sound lifestyles (e.g., through the use
of energy efficient light bulbs),and the country should seek to
generate more power from wind, solar and other renewable sources of
energy. In addition, he noted that Ghana would launch a "massive"
reforestation and afforestation program in 2010.

--------------
Will Cocoa Become the Ghanaian Polar Bear?
--------------


6. (U) Mr. E. O. Nsenkyire, the Chairman of Ghana's National Climate
Change Committee, noted that the committee is currently preparing
the country's national climate change mitigation and adaptation
plan. He also warned that cocoa could be the "Ghanaian Polar Bear."
If current trends continue unchecked, cocoa might not grow at all
in Ghana by 2080, because of the cocoa plant's sensitivities to
temperature changes and sunlight conditions. Some 800,000 small
households dependent on cocoa farming for their livelihoods could be
affected, in addition to the fact that 63% of foreign agricultural
export revenues are derived from cocoa.

-------------- -
Ghana Must be More Environmentally Responsible
-------------- -


7. (U) Okyehene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin II, an Eastern Region
traditional ruler who has been very active on environmental causes,
urged Ghanaians to behave with more environmental responsibility and
to try and live more in harmony with nature. He pointed out that
the air and water, "the two liquids that sustain us," have become
the "national garbage cans," with air pollution rampant, and solid
and liquid waste management in an "appalling" state in Ghana. He
argued that gold mining was poisoning Ghana's water resources and

ACCRA 00001290 002 OF 002


breeding more mosquitoes, exacerbating the country's serious malaria
problem. He also warned that overpopulation could become a major
cause of environmental degradation, and Ghana should adopt policies
that would lead to a drop in the total fertility rate and help to
cap Ghana's population at no more than 24 million people.


8. (U) Ghana would need to state its case for assistance at
Copenhagen clearly and forcefully, he noted, even though Ghana would
be negotiating with "the guys who already give us aid," and it is
difficult to "fight a man and beg him at the same time."

--------------
Keep a Constructive Tone at Copenhagen
--------------


9. (U) Togolese Ambassador to Ghana Jean-Pierre Gbikpi-Benissan, the
dean of the Accra diplomatic corps, appealed for "serenity to
prevail over passions" at the Copenhagen Summit. In his view, a
constructive approach was most likely to lead to a successful
climate change deal.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


10. (SBU) Encouragingly, Ghana's National Climate Change Forum was
not simply an exercise in blaming developed countries for global
warming and demanding massive amounts of assistance to cope with the
effects of climate change. Both the VP and Okyehene were careful to
balance their remarks and to point out ways in which Ghanaians
themselves could help to begin solving the climate change problem
and to improve the environment in Ghana.

TEITELBAUM