The United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (UK FCDO) has urged government to adopt a long-term vision towards a low carbon future.
The UK FCDO participating in the virtual national dialogue on Extractive Governance themed; Toward a Sustainable Future for Extractive Governance in Ghana – Interrogating Past Reforms for Exploring New Policy Directions, asserted the impact of the extractive sector on climate change is significant and as such all countries including Ghana should adopt plans and strategies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
Adding it expects Ghana to present a strong vision and strategy at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) summit to be held in the UK later this year.
Countries around the globe are transitioning from the use of fossil fuel energy to much cleaner sources of energy such as the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).
The transition to the use of clean energy by countries as well as International Oil Companies (IOCs) is to keep faith with commitments made at the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
Already several IOCs such as Total, Eni, BP among others have announced plans to progressively divert from fossil fuel production to that of cleaner energy. This has resulted in the downgrading of their fossil fuel assets in billions of dollars.
Ghana might already be on the path to transitioning from dependence on fossil fuel for industry use and power production with the construction of the Tema LNG terminal – Sub-Saharan Africa’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal – which is expected to receive its first LNG import in the coming weeks.
The Tema LNG terminal has the capacity to receive, re-gasify, store, and deliver around 1.7 million tonnes of LNG a year, about 30 per cent of Ghana’s general capacity.
The Tema LNG terminal aims to meet Ghana’s growing energy demand through an innovative yet cost-efficient, reliable supply.