Ghana has been selected to host the proposed independent global secretariat of the group Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which has now been declared as a fully-fledged treaty organization.
The Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Vulnerable Twenty Group of Finance Ministers announced the nomination at their meeting on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
Sixty-eight climate-vulnerable countries are driving the agenda calling for the overhaul of the global financial architecture.
Governments of CVF represent 1.74 billion people and $3.8 trillion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Ghana assumed the Presidency of CVF and Chair of the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance from 2022 to 2024.
According to the V20 Loss and Damage Report, Ghana lost US$15.20billion from 2000 to 2019 to climate change.
The World Bank Group’s new Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for Ghana, incomes could reduce by up to 40 per cent for poor households by 2050, if urgent climate actions were not taken.
The CVF meeting was co-organized by the V20, represented by its Chair Ken Ofori-Atta, and sponsored by the Ghana Permanent Mission to the UN.
Other ministers and ranking officials of the CVF and V20 members, key partner countries and philanthropies also joined the meeting at the UN headquarters.
They adopted the CVF Leaders’ Declaration, which called for the Establishment of a fully independent secretariat for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the Vulnerable Twenty Group of Finance Ministers (V20) among others.
In his address as the current chairman of CVF ahead of the group’s declaration, President Akufo-Addo indicated that the group’s meeting was timely because it will enable CVF to formalize the first step towards establishing the full independence of the CVF.
“The decision to establish an independent secretariat for the CVF/V20 was announced in April at the conclusion of the 10th Ministerial Dialogue of the V20 during the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, with significant public support from our partners including the World Bank Group and the IMF.
“To see this through, Ghana commits $1 million to host the headquarters of the independent Secretariat for the first year as the various structures of the Secretariat get established to ensure that we build a strong institution that has robust governance structures and resources” President Akufo-Addo said
