GAYO, AMA hold roundtable to secure funding and institutional backing for Accra’s methane reduction plan

The Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have held a roundtable to get government institutions and funders to commit to Accra’s plan to cut methane emissions from waste.

The Accra LOW-M Institutional and Climate Finance Roundtable: Advancing Coordinated Action and Climate Finance for Urban Methane Reduction, held on Wednesday at the Africa Regent Hotel in Accra, focused on the Accra LOW-M (Lowering Organic Waste Methane) Portfolio. The plan aims to cut methane emissions from the city’s waste by at least 30 percent by 2030, mainly by turning organic waste into compost and biogas instead of sending it to landfills.

The meeting, co-organised with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and C40 Cities, brought together the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Environmental Protection Agency and its Ghana Carbon Markets Office, the private sector and informal waste workers.

Fathia Selasi Charway-Glover, Project Coordinator on GAYO’s Zero Waste Cities Project, said the aim was to get each institution to take responsibility for its part of the plan.

“Today, we are essentially here to bring together all institutions across government offices and across the roles of each of these institutions when it comes to the implementation of the portfolio,” she said.

She explained that LOW-M is a global initiative supported by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. It was launched at COP28 to encourage cities to set targets for reducing organic waste and methane by 2030. She said more than 55 percent of Accra’s waste is organic, and that the plan depends on separating it at source.

Desmond Alugnoa, Africa Programme Manager of GAIA, said the portfolio was designed to bring scattered efforts under one plan.

“This is to help coordinate all the implementation activities that are happening within the city and beyond the city,” he said. He added that informal waste workers would be central to educating households on separating their waste, and that he was looking to the Ministry of Finance to commit budget to collection, composting and biogas.

The AMA says it needs that support. Victor Kotey, the Assembly’s Climate Change Focal Point, said waste management is expensive and the Assembly cannot raise enough revenue on its own.

“Investment is a problem in the waste sector and in the other sectors as well,” he said. He warned that without more effort and money, Ghana may not meet its 2030 target.

Engineer Godfred Fiifi Boadi, Head of Climate Action, Sustainability and Partnerships at the Ministry of Local Government, said the plan builds on existing national efforts, including compost plants, biogas facilities and faecal sludge treatment plants.

“There are many interventions across the country that helps to divert this organic waste from actually entering landfills,” he said.

The roundtable is expected to produce four outcomes: a responsibility matrix naming the lead institution and focal person for each action, a six- to 12-month action plan, a pipeline of projects seeking funding, and a tracker to monitor commitments made at the meeting. Organisers say the outcomes will be shared with participants in early November, with follow-up on commitments through to December.

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