NPP government bemoans 'take or pay' energy agreements
NDC claims it solved 'dumsor' before exiting office
Renowned Johns Hopkins University economist, Professor Steve Hanke, has opined that Ghana’s quest to switch to renewable energy has failed.
According to him, this is evident in the country’s intermittent power supply challenges which has popularly become known as ‘dumsor’.
In a Twitter post, Professor Steve Hanke stated that the Paris Agreement which enjoined countries to adopt measures to address climate change leading to Ghana taking $700m from the World Bank in 2015 for its renewable energy drive has failed to live up to expectations as it struggles to keep the lights on.
“In 2015, Ghana signed the Paris Agreement, and the World Bank provided a $700M guarantee for Ghana’s renewable energy transformation. Today, Ghana faces regular blackouts. SPOILER ALERT: The GREEN experiment in Ghana has been a BLACKOUT,” he tweeted.
“Three countries that have become poster children for GREEN DISASTERS: Ghana, South Africa and Sri Lanka. What do they all have in common? Power cuts, protests and blackouts. SPOILER ALERT: There is no such thing as a GREEN FREE LUNCH,” Professor Steve Hanke added.
The Paris Agreement was reached on December 12, 2015, when world leaders met to set goals to tackle climate change and its negative impacts.
Per the agreement, all countries are to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees
Developing countries are also provided financing to mitigate climate change, strengthen resilience and enhance their abilities to adapt to climate impacts.
A country’s commitment is reviewed every five years
The Agreement is a legally binding international treaty and came into force on 4 November 2016.
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DS/SARA
