In early March, twenty Ghanaian start-up companies completed the first national boot camp designed to promote “local entrepreneurship and innovation in clean technologies.” The boot camp, sponsored by the new Ghana Climate Innovation Center, aimed to highlight Ghanaian entrepreneurs who have been active in developing locally feasible solutions to global climate change.

If current climate trends persist, experts predict dire consequences for Ghana’s economy, people and overall development. According to the World Bank’s report, “Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change” and Ghana’s National Climate Change Policy Framework, crop yields “are predicted to decline by 7% by 2050 due to higher temperatures.”

Meanwhile, the reports predict that sea levels are expected to rise over one meter over the course of the 21st century, “causing the erosion of 1,120 square kilometers of land.”

The boot camp followed a rigorous nation-wide application process overseen by the World Bank and its global grant program Information for Development, the sponsors of the Ghana Climate Innovation Center. According to the World Bank, only the companies with the “highest level of innovation, technical expertise, and potential for commercial success” were invited to the boot camp.

The boot camp participants are pioneers in some of Ghana’s most prosperous green technology sectors, including biofuels, solar energy and waste and water management.

The boot camp represents the first project for the Ghana Climate Innovation Center, a newly implemented institute that draws support from the World Bank, InfoDev, and the Danish International Development Cooperation Agency.

In the future, the GCIC hopes to “assist more than 20,000 households to increase resiliency to climate change through improved access to potable water, availability of clean energy, and more sustainable agriculture techniques.”

– Katrina Beedy

Sources: InfoDev 1, InfoDev 2, World Bank
Photo: Green Ghanaian