Letter to The President: # 2

The Forerunners

Excellency,

Welcome to the „Land of Ideas“, as the Germans like to refer to their country. There is no shortage of inventions originating from Germany: the doctorate degree, the printing press, the aspirin, the diesel engine and the sausage in all its flavors and textures, ranging from Frankfurters to Bratwurst!

The Germans are not famous for delays; if anything, they are well-known for their punctuality, unmatched attention to details and obsession with technical precision and accuracy.

Yet it was The Germans who left the flag of Ghana flying over the Adolphbrücke (Adolph Bridge) adjacent to The Chamber of Commerce (Handelskammer) in Hamburg over a month after the last event there (Handelskammer) on Ghana organized by The Afrika-Verein on June 4, 2008! That singular act explains more than several other signs and symbolisms the importance Germany attaches to its relations with Ghana, especially since the ascent to the presidency of Horst Koehler and the assumption by Andreas Proksch of the Africa Desk (Afrika-Direktor) of The Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ, the main German overseas development arm! A lot was said about President Horst Koehler in the maiden edition of this series, but tomes could be written about the Doyen of German development assistance policy, the man who like his Federal President may be described as someone with a 'heart for Africa'. Andreas Proksch is the expert under whose watch the shift to 'capacity development', especially as an important factor to be integrated into poverty reduction, is taking place in German overseas development assistance as part of the global trend.

It was into the program of the heavy-schedule event in Hamburg last June that Stephen Antwi, the US-educated promoter of Ghanaian-German business and economic co-operation, managed to squeeze a 10-point 'Why do Business with Ghana' presentation into the program. It was delivered to an audience including German civil servants, businessmen and politicians with an efficacy and efficiency that left the listeners taking notes not just on the reasons given but also the upcoming events and dates marking milestones in bilateral relations, including His Excellency's current visit.

As befits such an august visit at the invitation of none other than The Federal President, His Excellency would no doubt agree that the forerunners responsible for the ealborate preparations deserve special commendation. Two are selcted here: the Ghanaian natioanl already mentioned, Stephen Antwi who is The President of the Ghana-German Economic Association (GGEA), and his German counterpart, a Ghana-based German this writer prefers to refer to as 'The Blond Ghanaian'. His name is Patrick Martens, and he is The executive secretary of GGEA. None of the attendants -businessmen, economists and civil servants- at the high-profile Africa Summit held in Hamburg in January 2008 could afford to leave without taking home some of the points of interest to them which he made while mentioning 'Ghana' at least thirty times. Opportunities in the packaging industry is all this writer can disclose, for lack of space.

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Please Tear Down This wall

Now to the other main theme of this issue of 'The Letter To The President'. It is the conviction of this writer that Ghana can attain the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) under a sustainable development scenario. It is also his conviction that without ensuring access to affordable modern energy supply as a crucial factor in the battle against poverty the prerequisites for attainment of the MDGs may elude the nation.

No prudent national energy policy can exclude the traditional fossil-fuel based energy sources. In spite of the aforegoing statement it can be demonstrated that renewable energy technologies offer not just environmentally cleaner solultons but also economically more efficient energy generation options. Their contribution to fighting poverty and misery has been demonstrated in global studies

Excellency, more than an internet decade ago, in a discussion with then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, this writer got the chance to convince himself of the importance of energy technologies, especially renewable energies, in the export and development policy of Germany. Further, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in Autumn 2002, Germany announced a 500-million-Dollar renewable energy technologies deployment fund, earmarked for projects in developing countries. How much of it Ghana was able to access is now history.

Fortunately, energy issues have featured prominently in His Excellency's discussions with German delegations to Ghana. Energy will undoubtedly be high on the list of sectors in which Ghana will be seeking German help for bilateral co-operation during the current visit. Here, observers conversant with recent developments relating to oil finds in Ghana hardly harbor any doubts that assistance in the exploration and development of oild fields will be sought, not to mention production, transportation and infrastructure development operations.

The challenge however, now that under Norwegian help all effort is being made to ensure equitable future distribution of the new source of national wealth, will be how to exploit the oil and gas resources with minimal damage to the environment.

Incidentally, in the Monday, August 25 issue of the Hamburger Abendblatt daily there is a call from Klaus Toepfer, former Secretary General of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and currently a visiting profesor at the elite Tonji University in Shangai (China), for more action by industrialized countries to help fight global water, environmetal and energy problems in a sustainable manner.

It may be recalled that Ghana is a sgnatory to The Kyoto Protocol, whcih the nation ratified on March 12, 2003. Ghana has sent delegates to almost all renewable energy conferences, workshops, seminars and other programs held in Germany, including the latest International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), not forgetting The World Council on Renewable Energies (WCRE). Some of Ghana's energy technocrats sit on the boards of international energy agencies.

Truth is, at the home front a lot has taken place since the last energy forum, culminating in policy directives mentioning renewable energies. The bare fact, however, is that short of adequate separate provisons spelt out in a national renewable energy legislation little can be done to ensure the needed 'tearing down of the artificial wall' that seeks to block harnessing of the country's renewable energy potential in the most economically sustainable manner.

The consequences of traditional energy generation and consumption on the population are very well known. Sportsmen, officials and press representatives returning from Beijing will tell their vivid first-hand experiences to all who care to know. Moreover, the effects of air pollution on child health are known, thus the state of the Earth bequeathed (under several scenarios) to future generations can be inferred.

It is with all the above in mind, and guided by the global recognition Germany enjoys as 'The Mecca' of renewable energies (solar, wind, bio, etc.) that this writer makes the plea that the opportunity afforded by the 3-day trip be used by His Excellency to acquaint himslef with the success story called 'Germany' in this most crucial element of any national sustainable development strategy: The Renewable Energy Policy, butressed by a Law, with provisons for feedback into the national grid and pricing mechanisms that ensure that power generated from renewable energy sources remain competitive, etc. For Germany, the fruits have been: gaining national energy security, securing huge revenues from export of renewable energy technologies to not only developing countries (e.g. India, China, Argentina, ect) but also other industrialized nations including The US, and creation of a vibrant economic sector (market capitalization figures for some renewable energy firms have risen astronomically, the global economic downturn notwithstanding) noted for its role as a job-creation motor.

Hopefully, His Excellency will return home from the current trip with a hitherto unseen determination to transform Ghana from a country 'sitting on the fence as far as renewable energies are concerned' to pacesetter, fuelled by the revenues expected from the newly discovered hydrocarbon reserves to craft one of the most promising, if not the most promising, national sustainable development policy.

Excellency, in the interest of the informed Ghanaian population, a people who have on several occasions demonstrated in various articles, polls, fora, online as well as offline, their love and care for the environment and hence their desire to have the nation commit to a policy that nurtures development of the vast untapped renewal energy resources of the land in the most prudent and economically most viable conditions, TEAR DOWN THE INVISIBLE WALL PREVENTING EXPOLITATION OF RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY; MAKE THE DRAFT AND PASSING OF A NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAW A PRIORITY.

Before signing off, a quote:

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult - Seneca

Trust this writer to be, Yours in the pursuit of the best national interest

akokoraaba adansiman pipim

Biographical info: akokoraaba adansiman pipim is the pen name of a Hamburg-based Ghanaian bisiness consultant with interests in renewable energies and information and communication technologolies (ICT)