Stakeholders urge more sensitivity on Climate Change in Ghana

Stakeholders have urged Ghana to develop more sensitivity on Climate Change and build the country’s resilience towards it. Speaking on the sides of the launching of Ghana’s Climate Innovation Center (CNC), the stakeholders believed a lot more needed to be done to raise the sensitivity of the nation.

Patrick Awuah, President of Ashesi University, said Ghana needed to be a lot more sensitive to the issue of Climate Change and its impact.

“I think that the example from Denmark where they’ve been able to almost double their economy without doubling their energy use is a very instructive one. How can we conserve energy and use energy in an efficient way so that we can grow our economy more affordably without bringing in more fossil fuel and adding to the problem?” he asked.

Awuah also called for energy-efficient buildings which would use less energy so as to save the environment, adding that the establishment of Ghana CIC by Ashesi University was to help entrepreneurs who would help grow the economy in a climate sensitive and climate smart manner.

The center specifically aims to work with business set-ups that have good ideas.

The role of the private sector in the Climate Change adaptability is critical, according to the university don.

An issue encompassing all of this, according to him, is what Ashesi University and its partners want to do by taking a private sector driven approach to address Climate Change issues.

“Bring them to Ashesi, give them some training, put them through our partner institutions, SNV, Ernst & Young, to give them access to technology and also business advisory services.

Already some of the Green businesses, as climate sensitive businesses are termed, are already springing up in Ghana.

They include those making bamboo bicycles, bamboo charcoal, using used sachets to create bags, recycled bins made of cardboard, plastics, bamboo and Eco souvenirs.

Other companies also make solar panels, industrial improved cook stoves, diesel made from plastic waste, as well as the Ghana Green Building companies which design and build energy-efficient buildings.

Minister for Food and Agriculture Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna SAID Ghana had been putting in place measures to adapt agricultural activities to changing trends in climatic conditions.

“Definitely, if you talk about Climate Change, you know it has effect on agriculture. And that is why we are introducing modernized agriculture as one of the steps to be able to mitigate its effect on agriculture activities.

He said government had started irrigation activities and green-housing.

“If you go to Israel, somebody’s farm is just about the size of this room and he makes over 200,000 dollars a year. That is modernized agriculture. So, yes, climate change has effects and we are working to address those things,” the minister stated.

However, financing for Climate Change activities in Africa and Ghana cannot be effective if the world does not act together, says Ghana’s former President John Agyekum Kufuor, who is one of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoys on Climate Change.

He said all countries, including the developed world, were at the mercy of seasonal developments on them.

“We need the global community. The promises and pledges have been there for some time; unfortunately, the pledgers haven’t fulfilled their pledges in terms of financial support in terms of technological extension to the least developed countries.” Enditem

Source: Xinhua