A significant step toward achieving sustainable economic growth has been taken with government launching the first phase of Ghana’s Green Finance Taxonomy at the SDGs Investment Fair.
This new framework aims to guide investments into environmentally friendly sectors and align the nation’s financial system with global sustainability trends.
Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam outlined the initiative’s dual objectives – aiming at reducing the country’s debt to sustainable levels while improving environmental management.
He acknowledged the complexities of transitioning from carbon-intensive activities to low-carbon alternatives, noting that this shift requires “some sacrifices” and “hard decisions”.
The Green Finance Taxonomy is being implemented using a phased approach, which should lead to developing a transitional taxonomy for specific high-carbon industries like oil, gas and mining.
Therefore, to mitigate potential disruptions, government plans to develop a transitional taxonomy, guiding a gradual shift from high-carbon to low-carbon activities. This is to ensure that the need to balance environmental goals with economic stability is met.
The Ghana Green Finance Taxonomy aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Dr. Adam particularly noting the approaching 2030 deadline.
It will help accelerate the SDGs’ implementation toward achieving sustainable outcomes in green energy, forestry management and water management.
By aligning the taxonomy with sustainable development standards, Ghana is expressing its commitment to achieving a greener economy and transitioning its energy systems toward low-carbon alternatives.
This initiative is expected to play a crucial role in attracting green investments, creating jobs and fostering economic growth while prioritising environmental sustainability.
It is sensible and generally believed that decarbonisation (elimination of net CO2 emissions into the atmosphere – sometimes casually applied to all greenhouse gas emissions, GHG) in line with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is imperative for the prevention, or at least mitigation, of global warming and the increasingly obvious climate change.
The European Union in 2019 adopted the ‘Green Deal’ as a new growth strategy to thus become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. As an intermediate 2030 target, it set the goals of at least 40% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; an increase to 32% share for renewable energy; and a 32.5% increase in energy efficiency.
Sustainable development has been on the agenda since the late 1980s, and over that time not much progress has been made in moving toward a world that is more sustainable. A key aspect of sustainable development is ensuring that the development needs of future generations are taken into account.
