Post=Copenhagen Climate Change Round In Accra

Thursday February 11, 2010
By Lawrence Markwei

The threat of mass movement of people as a result of environmental degradation due to climate change is becoming a reality, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, has noted.

He said such a challenge is already manifesting itself in Ghana with the migration of Fulani herdsmen from the North to the South in search of forage for their cattle.

Dr. Boamah said as a result, anytime a confrontation broke out between Fulanis and local farmers over land usage, the underlining cause of such conflict should be put on the effect of climate change.

He was speaking in Accra yesterday at a round-table conference on climate change organised by Clean Climate Heritage (CCH) Ghana Limited on the theme ‘providing solutions for Climate Change – After Compenhagen what next for Ghana.

Dr. Boamah warned that if Ghanaians did not make climate change a national issue now, in the near future the country would be compelled to take on environment refugees.

He said the effect of climate change could also go a long way to affect every fibre of society such that insurance companies would soon be basing the amount of premium to pay based on the effect climate change could have on the item to be insured.

He said giving four wheel drives to retiring presidents, exposes a government’s non-commitment to fighting climate change.

He said since such vehicles consumed more fossil fuel which is a threat to the climate “future presidential committees on emoluments should consider giving ex-presidents saloon cars.”

Dr. Boamah advised that four-wheel drives should be judiously used since they consumed more fuel to the detriment of the environment.

He said the government should consider the situation where more saloon cars which consume less fuel are given to government workers for official use rather than four-wheel drives.

Dr. Boamah said in retiring the ex-Presidents too, though various committees had recommended four-wheel drives as part of retirement package, “saloon vehicles should be recommended to show governments commitment to fighting climate change.”

He said plans were far advanced to integrate climate change subjects in tertiary education, especially, the communication institutions for students to stay abreast with current occurrences under climate change.

Welcoming the participants, Mr. Akunu Dake, Chief Executive Officer of Clean Climate Heritage (CCH) said the discussion was organised to confront the country with the challenges in the guest to provide solutions for climate change.

He said the discussion was to provide an avenue for advocacy, advisory and transaction operation in the emerging renewable energy and clean environment.

Mr. Dake said after the Compenhagen Climate Change Conference, there was the need for Ghana to streamline the activities to put in place structures in the global fight against climate change.

He said his outfit would complement national efforts by assisting to identify what needed to be done as a country in respect of providing solutions for climate change.

Mr. Dake said that would include agreeing on the issues of focus and clearly determining who should be doing and focusing on what.

He said in line with that duty, CCH would generate and where necessary commission research based solutions that could be fed into national policy to be taken up by stakeholders and players in the field.

Mr. Dake said attention would be focused on vulnerable communities prone to the effects of climate change by developing policy and programme with detailed profile and impact assessment.

The conference was organised by Clean Climate Heritage (CCH) Ghana Limited an event management company committed to working with partner stakeholders to develop and safeguard the environment.

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