Kumasi, June 04, GNA – The National House of Chiefs has called for a reduction in the price of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to make it affordable for most Ghanaians.
That, the House said would reduce felling of trees for firewood and charcoal, which was gradually affecting the vegetation cover in the country.
Naa Puowele Karbo III, Vice-President of the House and Paramount Chief of Lawra Traditional Area in the Upper West Region, made the call on behalf of the House at a National Energy Transition Forum in Kumasi.
The forum, on the theme “Moving Ghana towards a Net-Zero Future” was organised by the Ministry of Energy to solicit stakeholders’ inputs towards the implementation of a harmonious national energy policy that is in sync with the Paris Accord, which aims at achieving a net-zero.
Energy Transition refers to the global shift from carbon-based systems of energy production and consumption such as crude oil, coal and wood fuels to clean energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear in reducing carbon emissions towards net-zero.
Naa Karbo III said if the price of LPG was higher than charcoal, as is currently the case, people would be compelled to rely on charcoal for domestic purposes, which would eventually affect the vegetation of the country.
“We will urge the government to take serious steps to reduce the price of LPG if it wants the ordinary Ghanaian to shift from using charcoal and firewood in their activities to gas to reduce carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere,” the Vice-President said.
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister for Energy, said the forum was part of the Ministry of Energy’s stakeholder engagements towards the finalization of the National Energy Transition Plan.
He explained the meaning of the Energy Transition to the Chiefs indicating that its global advocacy and decarbonisation had left many countries including Ghana in limbo, thus the need to plan.
The Minister intimated that it was imperative that the National Energy Transition Committee solicited for the views of key stakeholders including the Chiefs to shape the implementation of the Plan.
“We are here to discuss with Nananom to create an advocacy team, empower and ask them to be agents of propagating the whole energy transition agenda,” Dr. Opoku Prempeh noted.
“Food security has been threatened, job security too and generally the human existence due to the current sources of energy, which is the use of diesel, petrol, firewood, and charcoal. This is releasing a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere day by day,” he said.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh said the Ministry had plans to scale up the programme and distribute more cook stoves to people in the rural areas, where they used more firewood and charcoal to support them to switch to LPG.
He called on the Chiefs to be advocates to the Plan to help create awareness in their various communities to reduce carbon emissions that would help Ghana and the world to avoid catastrophic global warming.
GNA