Title: International Telecommunication Union (ITU) / Ghana experiences in National Planning for ICTs, Climate Change and Development
1International Telecommunication Union (ITU) /
Ghana experiences in National Planning for ICTs,
Climate Change and Development
- Mrs Helen Asiamah
- Deputy Director
- Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana
2(No Transcript)
3Economy average 13 GDP growth per annum (2011
est.)
Population 24mio _at_ 2010 2.7 annual growth rate
National Development Blue Print Ghana Shared
Growth Development Agenda
National Climate Change Policy Framework
Major economic development sectors
Electricity generation 5040 mix. hydro
thermal RE (Renewable energy bill passed)
Economic cost of environmental degradation
estimated at 9 of GDP (World Bank)
Negative Impacts of Climate Change on vulnerable
economic sectors agriculture, coastal zone,
health, energy production, Infrastructure (ICT)
etc.
Ratified UNFCCC and KP. Submitted NC1 NC2 to
UNFCCC in 2000 and 2011 respectively
4Climate-related information (1 of 1)
- Total GHG emission is estimated to be 24MtCO2e.
Equivalent of 1tCO2e per capita. - Energy, Agriculture and Land use change and
forestry are the sources of GHG. - Energy production, consumption and transport
constitute key source of emissions. Oil
exploitation is expected to impact on the
emission growth in future. - CO2 and CH4 are the major important GHG gases.
- Evidence of climate change is abound in Ghana.
Temperature has increased by between 0.6OC and
0.8OC since 1960. Projected to increased more
between 1.1OC and 1.7OC between 2020 and 2080.
5Climate-related information (2 of 1)
- Across the country, rainfall levels are generally
projected to decrease with the same time horizons
(2020 to 2080). - Manifestations of extreme weather events
(drought, flooding etc) and sea level rise
impacts are evident in Ghana. - Impacts of climate change has been identified as
additional threat to the economy of Ghana.
Sectors are climate sensitive (particularly,
agriculture, water, infrastructure etc). - Vulnerability spread defined by poverty,
geographical spread, livelihoods sources,
infrastructural resilience, access to risk
information, gender etc.
6ICT Sector in Ghana (3 of 1)
- Widespread availability of efficient and reliable
telecommunication services in Ghana. - Growing and highly competitive market. 6
international market players (as service
providers) with independent government
regulation. Potential to grow???? - Aggregated energy or GHG intensity is high. Could
potentially increase with large footprints (large
due to expansion of coverage). - High climate risk to, and impacts on
telecommunication infrastructure. (In Ghana, they
are largely installed as single units preferably
on high grounds) effects on quality of service
to customers.
7Affordable ICT Options in Ghana
- Telecommunication - high penetration
(households, urban, sub-urban areas, some transit
communities, limited in rural areas), advance
technologies for messaging (text and image),
internet connection, fiber optic connectivity. - Internet connectivity - wide use (cafes,
offices, homes, schools and limited in sub-urban
and rural areas). Generally poor speed,
application areas may include broadly business,
telecom, social media, emailing, search engines. - Access to computers and application increasing
use and access, for commercial, private and
official purposes, special form for application
use (weather forecasting, banking,
telecommunication, geographical position
systems), limited use in rural and sub-urban
areas. - Radio and TV proliferated use. Great deal of
access (wide coverage urban to rural areas).
Efficient mode of information dissemination.
8Opportunities for ICT in Climate Change in Ghana
- Green ICT service delivery - opportunites for
low GHG footprint interventions eg. Solar
powered mast units, energy efficiency practices.
( requires government incentive for scale up) - ICT industry offers wide ranging opportunities
for developing and deploying climate change early
warning services. Cheap, wide coverage, reliable
platform of disseminating climate risk
information to targeted vulnerable groups.
Opportunity exist in Ghana greatly. - There is need to ensure common platform
connectivity in order to reach the
geographically excluded vulnerable groups. - Platform for awareness creation. Cheap and wide
coverage. - Corporate Responsibility agenda could be good
avenue to leverage local private sector finance
to support national climate change activities.
9Strategy and Coordination of Climate Change in
Ghana
- Climate Change is featured in the Ghana Shared
Growth Development Agenda. - Ministry of MEST through the National Climate
Change Committee is coordinating the development
of a National Climate Change Policy Framework. - NCCPF will provide strategic direction and
national framework to addressing climate change
comprehensively in Ghana.
10National Strategies
- Targeted at
- Mainstreaming climate change into national
development planning. (climate smart economic
development - development to build climate
resilience with low carbon footprint) national,
sector and district levels - Facilitating implementation of UNFCCC
- Coordinating and harmonizing climate change
activities - Consultation and awareness
11Environmentally Sound Technologies
12GSGDA (2010 -2013) Key Focus Area 9 (Climate
Change specific)
Social Development
LCD
Adaptation
National Budget (Budget Guideline on Climate
change)
CC/DRR mainstreaming guidebook
District Medium Term Development Plan
13Governance coordination
Capacity building
Research knowledge management
International cooperation
Finance
communication
Monitoring Reporting
14Institutional Arrangement for coordinating
Climate Change in Ghana
15Ghana Environmental Protection Agency
- The National Focal Point for Climate Change in
Ghana is the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA). - The EPA works closely with key frontline
sector-institutions on climate change related
issues in the country such as the agriculture,
forestry, energy, health, communications and
finance. - The Agency had worked on and continues to work in
a number of climate change programmes and
projects.
16Lessons from Vodafone-EPA Partnership in Ghana
- EPA, Ghana and Vodafone Ghana Limited are
partnering to implement the first ICT climate
change project in Ghana. - The project was aimed at demonstrating
possibilities of developing early warning
platform at the local government level.
Individual cell phone units are intended as the
medium of dissemination of information. - The challenge has been access to reliable
connectivity - Project also seeks to contribute to setting
industry standards as part of regulation. - Awareness creation component
17Major challenges
- Lack of industry best practices.
- Connectivity problems in sub-urban towns and
rural areas. - General lack of awareness and capacity in the
industry. - Lack of incentive for early action or pioneering
and innovation. - Regulation is generally focused on bandwidth
allocation and service delivery. Industry
standard setting is delimited.
18Outlook
Major outcomes relevance to COP 17
Accra call for action
6th ITU symposium on ICTs, the environment and
climate change
19Major outcomes relevance to COP 17
- Mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and
the management of e-waste are critical in Africa. - Adaptation to climate change can be effective by
making better use of ICT to gather information,
process it and disseminate it to those most
vulnerable. - By adopting a 'closed-loop' approach to
manufacturing and recycling the need to extract
and process raw materials, can be much reduced. - 6th ITU Symposium in Accra, Ghana, concluded
with the adoption of a Call to Action to raise
awareness and build capacity on using ICTs to
tackle climate change.
20Accra, Call for Action
- The symposium called on the global leaders,
environmental experts and representatives from
international organizations, NGOs and other
sectors that will gather in the COP-17 to - Recognize the phenomenal power of ICTs to assist
countries to mitigate and adapt to the effects of
climate change. - Recognize the increasingly widespread use of
ICTs in changing many peoples lives and boosting
economic growth, and that although ICTs are also
a growing contributor to greenhouse-gas (GHG)
emissions, they also provide one of the most
significant opportunities to reduce emissions of
GHG, through the application of intelligent ICT
systems.
21- Further recognize that ICTs also reduce
manufacturing needs by replacing material goods
with virtual products, such as online music
downloads. - Take into account the role that ICT plays as a
catalyst to climate change adaptation which will
help countries preparedness for a more risky
future. - Enhance the transformational role of ICT for
climate change adaptation and disaster risk
reduction, will require the use of three
technology types telecommunication systems,
observation systems, and information systems.
22- Recognize that there is need to build capacities
in developing countries to support ICT as tool
for climate change adaptation and disaster risk
reduction - Forge partnerships and engage all stakeholders to
address climate change, due to its
multi-disciplinary nature, is critical. There is
the need to work closely with the private sector
(especially within the ICT industry) and the
youth on this front - Emphasize that ICTs play a critical role in
providing education and information through
broadcasting, Internet and other means of
communication and also the role played by ICTs
in remote monitoring of the Earth by satellite
and by sensors on the ground and in the ocean
23- Note that the use of ICTs in monitoring can
provide data and information on deforestation,
for instance, or on crop patterns that indicate
possible food shortages and that ICTs are vital
in disaster alerting which is closely linked to
climate change, and that ICT are essential in
disaster response by humanitarian organizations
and individuals. - Recognize that the production and use of ICT
equipment is increasing worldwide very fast,
leaving rapidly growing amounts of e-waste
behind. If not handled in a sound manner, e-waste
poses a serious threat to human health, the
environment and contributes substantially to GHG
emissions.
24 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) - GHANA
CC INTERVENTIONS
INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATIONS
GREEN HOUSE GAS INVENTORY
TECHNOLOGY NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR CLIMATE
ADAPTATION
PREPARATION OF NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
NATIONALLY APPROPRIATE MITIGATION ACTIONS (NAMAS)
OTHERS
CLIMATE CHANGE ICTs
- LOCAL PARTNERS
- MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS
- Vodafone Ghana
- Ghana Meteorological Agency
- NADMO
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS ITU UNFCCC
Integrating Climate Change into
Telecommunications Industry in Ghana
- Develop and produce a country assessment based
on some of the key areas within the Bali Action
Plan in line with UNFCCC guidelines. - Organize a training session on how ICTs can be
used to tackle climate change and how
standardized methodologies can support climate
change adaptation and mitigation in Ghana - Carry out a pilot project with an ICT company
(e.g. to demonstrate how advanced mobile
communications technology can be used to tackle
climate change)
Country Study on How ICT Sector can Reduce its
Own GHG Emissions
Community Adaption Through Early Warning Systems
HOSTED 6TH ITU CONFERENCE IN 2011
New Collaboration with ECOWAS
- MINISTERIAL COLLABORATION
- MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY - MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS
25Thank you