The Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana, Mariana Gonçalves Madeira, paid a courtesy call on Seidu Issifu, Ghana’s Minister of State for Climate Change and Sustainability on October 8,2025.
The meeting was joined by the Deputy Head of Mission, Micheal Akoto; the CEO of the Environmental Protection Agency, Prof Nana Klutse; and senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Environment, Science and Technology, and Finance, came at a decisive moment.
In barely a month, the world will gather in Belém, Brazil, for COP30 (10–21 November 2025). The agenda is clear: accelerate action, unlock finance at scale, and protect people and nature with urgency and integrity.
This diplomatic call is a signal to Ghanaians, to Africa, and to the world—that COP30 must deliver concrete gains for countries that have historically contributed the least to climate change yet bear the greatest costs. It is also a vote of confidence in the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama, whose government has reset Ghana’s climate governance to prioritize impact, accountability, and value for money.
The conversation in Accra was focused and pragmatic. Ghana and Brazil explored avenues to deepen collaboration on adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development ahead of COP30.
This includes joint advocacy through the G77 and other coalitions, building bridges between the Amazon and the Gulf of Guinea on forest protection, and accelerating research and deployment of low-carbon technologies suited to African realities.
The Brazilian Embassy, now in its second year under Ambassador Madeira’s leadership, reiterated its active role in environmental and climate initiatives across Ghana.
Brazil’s expansive diplomatic footprint in Africa—34 embassies and 3 consulates—positions it as a pivotal partner in elevating African priorities on the global stage.
The Ambassador expressed keen interest in Ghana’s COP30 agenda, from Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) implementation to forest governance, and offered to support where it can make the greatest difference. “This COP will be a different COP,” she noted, one that must be measured by real outcomes.
The Minister underscored a truth that can no longer be evaded: climate debt forgiveness is a matter of justice, not charity. Year after year, Ghana and countries like it pay more to service external debt than they can mobilize to protect citizens from floods, droughts, heatwaves, and the economic shocks these disasters unleash. That is unconscionable.
At COP30, Ghana will push for a finance package that goes beyond recycled pledges. We need predictable, accessible, and adequately scaled support that reaches where vulnerability is highest and returns are most transformative.
This includes:
Debt relief and debt-for-climate swaps that free fiscal space for adaptation, resilience, and green growth.
Reforms to global climate finance so resources move faster, with simpler access and stronger country ownership.
High-integrity carbon markets that reward real emissions reductions and verified co-benefits, not creative accounting.
Front-loaded adaptation finance to close the yawning gap between risk and resources, particularly for cities, coastal communities, smallholder farmers, and youth.
Ghana approaches COP30 with a deep commitment to protect and restore ecosystems, manage forests sustainably, and catalyze nature-positive development. The Amazon will be the world’s compass in Belém; but the Congo Basin and West Africa’s forests must be reading from the same chart.
Ghana and Brazil discussed practical avenues to share lessons, mobilize finance for forest guardians, and strengthen community-led conservation that aligns with decent livelihoods.
The meeting also touched on the very real logistical issues that can sideline developing-country participation: surging accommodation costs, pavilion access, and the nuts-and-bolts of running effective delegations and side events. Under the government’s reset agenda,
‘’Ghana will reduce the size of its COP30 delegation, focusing on a lean, skilled team empowered to negotiate, partner, and deliver results. Less pageantry, more purpose’’ as noted by the Minister.
To anchor this approach, the Minister has established a Technical Working Group (TWG) to coordinate Ghana’s pre- and post-COP engagements across government and with partners. The TWG brings together the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Finance; the Environmental Protection Agency; and other relevant agencies. Its mandate is simple: align positions, sharpen asks, and convert outcomes into implementable policy and investment pipelines at home.
Both Leaders explored opportunities for joint side events that move the needle on practical cooperation, pairing policy dialogue with investable projects and knowledge exchange.
Themes under consideration include South–South collaboration on nature-based solutions; climate-smart agriculture and forest-positive cocoa; city-level adaptation; and frameworks for credible, pro-poor carbon markets. The aim is to convene partners who can commit resources, offer technical support, and co-create roadmaps that outlast the conference.
COP30 in Belém must be judged by what changes for the people on the frontlines: fishers along our coasts, traders in our markets, farmers contending with erratic rains, children learning in classrooms that are too hot to sit in. Ghana will arrive with a clear, disciplined agenda and a determination to forge coalitions that deliver—across Africa, the G77, and with Brazil’s leadership as host.
Belém offers a rare alignment of place and purpose. In the heart of the Amazon, the world will be reminded that climate action is not a distant abstraction, it is the daily work of keeping rivers flowing, forests standing, cities livable, and economies fair. Ghana intends to do its part, and to do it well. With Brazil as a partner and Africa as a force, COP30 can be the turning point where justice and ambition meet, and where the Global South leads not by asking, but by acting
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