Adjei Sowah speaking at the meeting
The Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, has
challenged financial institutions and private sector actors to take advantage
of the immense economic opportunities in the circular economy.
The
mayor, who doubles as the Board Member of Global Covenant of Mayor’s (GCoM),
noted that the approach would go a long way to help mitigate the effects of
climate change.
Mr
Sowah, who is also the Vice-Chair of C40 Cities, was speaking at a forum on
Financing Sustainable African Cities in Johannesburg, South Africa, hosted by
C40 Cities’ Financing Sustainable Cities Initiative (FSCI), and supported by
the Citi Foundation.
The
forum was aimed at highlighting the huge investment opportunity in Africa to
pave the way for a more sustainable future, while providing a platform to
showcase the potential of Africa’s city-level projects and opportunities
available for investment to fight climate change.
“Climate
change issues are development issues; we must ensure projects and developments
are sustainable. We must also find solutions to financing projects that achieve
climate change innovations…There is a big economic incentive in the circular
economy and financial institutions and private sector actors must rise to the
challenge,” he said.
“We
are not short of ideas; we are short of capital. Our biggest issue right now is
raising finance for sustainable development,” he added.
The
mayor who was recently named among the
“World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Change Policy 2019” noted that in the city of Accra authorities are
partnering the private sector to work towards achieving 50% reduction in waste
to landfill.
He
said his outfit was aggressively pursuing citizen sensitization to appreciate
the linkages between local actions and their impacts on environment.
“May,
June and July are rainy seasons in Accra, with the possibility of flooding.
It’s important for us to explain to residents how our local actions impact on
our environment,” he said.
The
Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, who also spoke at
the forum, emphasized the need for developing cities to focus on
sustainability, given that they face the brunt of climate change, despite not
being the biggest contributors.
He
noted that developing cities faced the challenge of having to expand economic
growth, provide water, electricity and other resources …
Owing to this, the issues of climate change and sustainability were not as big a priority for developing cities as they should be, he said.
A Business Desk Report
The post AMA Boss Promotes Sustainable Cities’ Financing appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
