A World Climate Ambassador and Ghanaian youth climate activist, Joshua Amponsem, is scheduled to meet with the President of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo and other Head od States today, Monday January 25, to raise ambition, finance and investments on adaptation as part of Climate Adaptation summit 2021 which is hosted by the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The High-Level Opening Session of the Summit will profile the contributions of Heads of State and Governments and other invited high-level dignitaries. The Ghanaian climate activist is the only young speaker present at the Summit to represent the voices of young people across the globe and particularly youth who are faced with the harshness of climate change impacts. Joshua Amponsem is the Executive Director of Green Africa Youth Organization and led the authorship of the first-ever background paper on the role of youth in climate adaptation in 2019 and has since been an anchor in the advocacy for increased efforts on adaptation to climate change.
The objectives of today’s Summit includes Enhancing Ambition on Adaptation by building on the Climate Ambition Summit in 2020, where Joshua Amponsem emphasized the need to increase investments in Global South where adaptation is needed the most. The summit also seeks to forge Solutions and Tools by mobilizing the billions and shifting the trillions to power a climate resilience transformation within the world economy, upscale solutions to confront the challenges from climate change, and invest in capacity building. It also seeks to support Communities to Adapt by sharing the best international partnerships, national adaptive efforts, and sub-national innovative collaborative experiences to deliver the most effective results. Additionally, it hopes to adopt the Adaptation Action Agenda that seeks to deliver enhanced ambition, accelerated actions and tangible solutions to the problems of a warming world, showing how a climate-resilient future can and will be achieved.
Ahead of today’s High-Level Opening Session, Joshua Amponsem led the global youth climate community to handover a set of key recommendations for adaptation action which had been developed through series of consultations with young people from every region of the world. The Ghanaian youth activist has been leading the global youth consultations on adaptation which has now been developed into a Global Youth Call to Action which he handed over to Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary General of the United Nations and Chair of Global Center on Adaptation among other world leaders. In a conversation with Inger Andersen, Director of UNEP, and other leaders on Friday evening at the Youth4Climate Live series, Joshua Amponsem said: “Adaptation is needed now. It cannot wait, because the impacts of climate change are here! We need to give young people the knowledge and skills to face the future ahead of them.”
According to the agenda of the Opening session, high ranking personalities include host, Netherland Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Global Commission on Adaptation – Co-chair Ban Ki-moon and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Other World Leaders include Ghana: President Nana Akufo-Addo, Germany: Federal Chancellor Merkel, Chile: President Sebastián Piñera, United Kingdom: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Grenada: Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, France: President Emmanuel Macron, China: Vice Premier Han Zheng, United States of America: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, International Monetary Fund: Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Gabon: President Ali Bongo, India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, World Bank Group: President David Malpass, Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among others.
