International Telecommunication Union (ITU) / Ghana experiences in National Planning for ICTs, Climate Change and Development

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International Telecommunication Union (ITU) /
Ghana experiences in National Planning for ICTs,
Climate Change and Development

• Mrs Helen Asiamah
• Deputy Director
• Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana

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(No Transcript)
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Economy 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
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Climate-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.

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Climate-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.

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ICT 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.

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Affordable 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.
  

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Opportunities 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.

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Strategy 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.

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National 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

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Environmentally Sound Technologies
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GSGDA (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
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Governance coordination
Capacity building
Research knowledge management
International cooperation
Finance
communication
Monitoring Reporting
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Institutional Arrangement for coordinating
Climate Change in Ghana
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Ghana 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.

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Lessons 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

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Major 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.

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Outlook
Major outcomes relevance to COP 17
Accra call for action
6th ITU symposium on ICTs, the environment and
climate change
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Major 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.

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Accra, 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.

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1. Further recognize that ICTs also reduce
   manufacturing needs by replacing material goods
   with virtual products, such as online music
   downloads.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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1. Recognize that there is need to build capacities
   in developing countries to support ICT as tool
   for climate change adaptation and disaster risk
   reduction
2. 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
3. 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

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• 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.

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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

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Thank you