Minority Chief Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh has called on African leaders to take advantage of the growing global carbon credit market as a strategic funding alternative amid rising economic restrictions and donor fatigue.
Speaking at the Pan-African Parliament on Friday, August 1, he argued that Africa must look inward and get innovative, especially with global financing tightening due to external shocks and policy shifts in key donor countries.
“Mister President, in this age of restrictions, at least we can talk about the restrictions coming from the USA with this attendant effect, we should be getting innovative,” the Nsawam Adoagyiri MP said.
He pointed to the booming carbon credit system as one of the most viable and underutilised options currently available to African nations.
“One of the low-hanging fruits that we can tap into is a carbon credit. The carbon credit system is becoming admirable in the narrative of the world.
“For instance, I am aware of what the European Union is doing, and particularly the UAE. There is a huge potential there where member countries can’t plough into the carbon credit system.
“So we may have to avert our minds to these matters and see how best the continent could take advantage of this,” he stated.
Frank Annoh-Dompreh noted that while funding remains a key challenge across the continent, African governments must also show responsibility in how they use the resources already available.
“Whilst we are advocating for more funding, we should also be advocating for the appropriate allocation and the judicious usage of the funds that have been allocated.
“It cannot just be one side of the point where we always call for funding. So we call for funding, we must responsibly also get a monitoring or up our monitoring system, where the usage or otherwise of these funds given are monitored,” he emphasised.
Touching on the 2024 budget presentation at the Parliament, he urged that future budgets must be aligned with clearly defined priorities.
“We should always set out what our proud priorities are as a parliament and say ‘A and B were our priorities’ and then when we present the budget, the budget should go to feed into these priorities,” he said.
He questioned the basis for claims of an 81% success rate in the 2024 budget and warned that such numbers must reflect real progress on priority areas.
“We should be elucidating on what constituted the 81%. It may be the case that the 81% success story was more of an area that we did not target or put much emphasis on,” he said.
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