Ghana’s 170-member delegation to Glasgow had no climate change experts – ASEPA

Executive Director of Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, has condemned the government for not including the relevant climate change experts in the delegation sent to the Glasgow Climate Change conference.

He believes the 170 delegates flown to the conference on the taxpayer’s dime were members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and added that the number of delegates was misreported.

During an interview with Don Kwabena Prah on the Epa Hoa Daben show on Happy98.9 FM, Mensah Thompson cried, “We’ve all seen the official list of the delegates, what are 170 people going to do at a climate change conference. Apart from a few agents working directly under our climate change program and the civil society organizations who play active roles in the sustainable development goal, how many civil society members were represented on this trip?

We have a lot of issues on climate to resolve, including refuse disposals. Therefore, sending party delegates and people who don’t contribute to the issue of climate change in this country is clearly a problem.”

The Executive Director of ASEPA empathized that government should have included significant media personnel and players involved in Ghana’s sustainable development goals amongst the Glasgow conference delegates.

He believes the government has wasted resources and urged Ghanaians to demand accountability from the government.

It has emerged that Ghana sent over 330 delegates to the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP 26), which was held from 31st October to November 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland.

A provisional list published on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website indicates that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led Ghana’s contingent.

Some sector ministers who made the trip included Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation; Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey of Foreign Affairs; Dan Botwe, Minister of Local Government Decentralization and Rural Development; Samuel Abu Jinapor, Minister for Land and Natural Resources and Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Energy.

The list also includes representatives from Parliament, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of the President, and the media.