By Nathaniel Nartey
Facebook: Nathaniel Nartey
Twitter: @Annertey_Nartey
Ghana’s delegation of 337 representatives at the just ended Conference of Parties, COP26 in Glasgow is the 4th largest of all countries present and the 2nd largest in Africa behind the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Brazil has the largest party delegation at COP26, clocking in at 479. This is their second-largest named delegation after COP15 (566). After Brazil, the next largest is Turkey (376), followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (373), Ghana (337), and Russia (312).
The issue generated controversies when the news broke, with the assumption that all the 337 delegates were sponsored by the government. These criticisms forced the Director of Communications at the Presidency Eugene Arhin to address the issue.
Mr. Arhin said the government did not send nor fund 337 Ghanaians to attend COP26 adding that the official Presidential delegation comprised 24 persons including President Akufo Addo and a number of Ministers and officials at the Presidency.
Many have continued to raise questions on whether the number of delegates sent to the Climate Conference had any significance to the quality of deals struck at such conferences, what the average number of delegates should be and what the large representation for Ghana at COP26 meant. GBC put these questions to the Head of Surface Water Division at the Water Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR-Ghana Dr. Emmanuel Obuobie for some answers.
Dr. Obuobie who had attended previous Climate Conference said an appreciable number of delegates are required from each country to negotiate on behalf of their countries in the numerous meetings, most of which are held simultaneously. Ghana’s large representation at COP26 is an indication that Ghanaians are interested in Climate issues.
“We have multiple meetings occurring at the same time and so there could be negotiation around issues of forest or something that has to do with greenhouse gas emission responsibilities or requirements of this country. There could be a negotiation going on around funding for disaster management issues. So they come in different forms and you can’t have just 5,6, or 7 people representing the country in all these different meetings to negotiate at the same time. So that is why each country that comes to COP will come with a team and the team will be made of the government and private institutions and it’s not everybody that goes there from government or public institutions that is funded by the government, I don’t know how many people are funded by the government specifically but quite a number of people are also funded by some funding sources available or from project activities that they do at their institutions which requires them to be present at COP and so on and so forth.”
Dr Obuobie said that the number of delegates representing a country at the Climate Change Conferences does not have any influence on the quality of deals a country gets.
“Each COP is planned differently so I won’t be able to say that this should be the number, I don’t have numbers. I think there are no restrictions on numbers but for those that are representing a country for negotiation purposes there each country has numbers assigned to them and they can’t exceed those numbers. Those numbers mean that Ghanaians are more interested in the issue as COP and they want to be there for various purposes and to show their presence.”
He added by saying “certain numbers are required. It’s important to have some numbers because of the simultaneous happening of these meetings you need some minimum numbers to effectively represent your country but it has no direct relation to whatever deals we get because sometimes in terms of the funding the mechanisms are set out already”.
This story was produced with the support of climate Tracker.
