SYND Deputy Executive Coordinator, Mr. Solomon Yamoah
Story by: Ishmael Barfi
The Deputy Executive Coordinator for Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) Mr. Solomon Yamoah has urged young people to position themselves strategically to tap into the newfound ‘gold’ carbon market to earn a decent living.
The carbon market according to him is the ‘gold’ every country specially African countries are tapping to boost their socio-economy.
To him, the carbon market is reigning at the moment and Ghana needs to capitalize on it to gain more revenues to enhance the living condition of ordinary Ghanaians, especially farmers.
It is in this regard, he acknowledged the efforts of the Forestry Commission in ensuring Ghana utilizes its carbon generation hence funds for the farmers, especially cocoa farmers in the rural areas of the country.
Mr. Yamoah interacting with some of the young participants
Mr. Solomon Yamoah made these remarks at a day capacity building workshop on Youth Participation in Ghana’s REDD+ Programme.
The workshop organized by the Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) in partnership with the Forestry Commission of Ghana in Accra provided a platform for young people to interact, learn, and be informed of the numerous opportunities in the climate space relating to carbon emission.
The Deputy Executive Coordinator of SYND was of the view that it is time for young people to be interested in farming, especially cocoa farming.
“We know the population of the country is mostly young people and if cocoa farmers are aging and going to phase out, it is time for young people to also step in if we want to keep our green sector thriving”, he reiterated.
In this space, he explained there are a lot of opportunities for young people hence SYND saw the need to organize a day capacity building workshop to enable them to gain interest in this space.
Group picture of participants, SYND and Forestry Commission Team
“We are now complaining about youth unemployment, If young people take the opportunity to gain interest in this space, they can direct their narrative, instead of always waiting for the government to give them employment”, he emphasized.
Adding “The space I’m talking about is the Ghana Cocoa REDD+ initiative space where we know cocoa farmers are there so if we can create an economic livelihood for young people in this space of cocoa and as they’re talking about carbon and other things, young people can direct their pathways, which is one of my biggest focus”.
Some of the challenges he recounted is that many young people are not informed so “we at SYND organized this capacity building session to educate the young ones about what is happening so that they can make informed decisions. So, we want to see many of these young people taking advantage of such opportunities and make the best out of it”.
Strategic Youth Network for Development he noted believes that visibility is one of the most important things any Civil Society Organization (CSO) has to do in getting young people involved adding “It is about attraction, making your focus your niche area”.
“we find ourselves as a young-oriented environmental organization which focuses more on young people and in this space of the Ghana Cocoa REDD+ initiative, so we have to identify our niche of what we want to do by getting a lot of young people involved”.
Touching on efforts in fight against climate change, Mr. Solomon Yamoah pointed out that, looking at the current space, Ghana is taking the needed steps by doing its best but was quick to add that sometimes regulation stifles businesses.
“Yes, we do have the sun but solar investment is not an easy investment so we have to create the enabling environment for businesses to come in that is why currently we are using the carbon market to explore various investment opportunities which are available”, he asserted.
Adding that, due to the IMF Programme, sources of funds are limited in various ways, however, he noted that, another source of funds is the carbon finance or market but there should be more education which businesses should also try to explore to get investment in that aspect.
The SYND deputy Executive Coordinator urged regulators to open up for businesses to know the opportunities available for these businesses to thrive stressing that, in this space if businesses are not thriving investors will leave.
Businesses he noted should also be innovative saying “they cannot be doing the same thing they used to do 10years ago, they should be innovative and take advantage of global trends such as carbon finance”.
Carbon market is Africa’s newfound gold—SYND Deputy Executive Coordinator to youth
Meanwhile Over 240 thousand farmers from 1,400 communities in Ghana’s seven cocoa producing regions are benefiting from the Carbon Emission Fund in direct payments and community projects.
Ghana has begun disbursement of the 4.8 million dollars received from the World Bank under the Ghana Cocoa Forest Redd Plus Programme.
Carbon emissions reduced in 2019 alone under the programme is about 973,000 tons, which can be compared to taking 200 cars off the road.
In 2019, Ghana signed a 5-year Emission Reductions Payment Agreement with the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Carbon Fund, administered by the World Bank.
The agreement unlocked performance-based payments of up to USD50 million for carbon emission reductions from the forest and land use sectors.
Some media personnel at the workshop
Ghana became the third country in Africa, after Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign the agreement with 10 million tons of emissions expected to be realized in six years.
Forest degradation and deforestation are driven primarily by cocoa farm expansion, illegal logging and illegal mining.
Increase in cocoa production means more forests are cut to pave way for cocoa seedlings.
But the agreement sought to reverse the trend as Ghana became the second country in Africa, after Mozambique.
The Forestry Commission and the Ghana Cocoa Board have been working in partnership to reduce carbon emissions through the promotion of climate-smart cocoa production.
World Bank released the funds in January 2023 after assessment and verification, but institution of due diligence measures delayed disbursement.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
