By Lydia Kukua Asamoah
Accra, Nov 21, GNA – Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Ghana, have been sensitised on ways they can help the country in reducing its share of greenhouse emissions, especially methane gas (CH4), as part of the climate change mitigation efforts.
Methane gas is said to have its sources from fossil fuel extraction and production, livestock digestion (enteric fermentation), rice cultivation, wastewater treatment and landfills, and is considered a powerful greenhouse gas with a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a relatively short timescale.
It is estimated to be over 25 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere compared to CO2.
Therefore, Greener Impacts International (GII), an NGO in collaboration with other stakeholders, held a workshop for the CSOs activists, and educated them on sources of methane gas and on how the country could either reduce its emissions or explore means to derive other uses from methane.
Dr Antwi Boasiako Amoah, Acting Director, Climate Vulnerabilities and Adaptation, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who sensitised the participants on the methane gas situation in Ghana, said it had contributed to about one-third of the current anthropogenic greenhouse gas-driven warming and it enters the atmosphere due to leaks in oil and gas industries, livestock rearing and the decomposition of waste in landfills.
He said currently, only two percent of global climate finance goes to methane gas mitigation and that “If the Global Methane Pledge is not adhered to, Methane emissions will likely increase by 13 per cent by 2030.”
He said however, that methane gas was also being used for organic fertilizer and so the CSOs could also come on board to research into other uses of methane, adding that Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions geared towards mitigating and adapting to the impact of climate change had various policies that address reduction of GHG emissions.
He said the country would continue efforts at mitigating methane and other short-lived climate pollutants in line with national efforts to achieving decarbonisation.
That would be done through the development of national action plans or strategies that identify specific actions to encourage emissions reduction, define timelines, and assess needed resources.
Dr Mutala Mohammed, a Research Scientist and Head, Sustainable Energy Technology Division Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – Institute of Industrial Research in a presentation, described methane as a “short-term climate forcer, with an atmospheric lifetime of roughly a decade.”
It also accounts for about 20 per cent of all global emissions. It is an “Air pollutant with detrimental effects on people, ecosystems and crops, he explained.
Dr Mohammed said the impacts of methane emissions are felt worse on large share of the economy in climate sensitive sectors including agriculture and tourism sectors.
“It also makes countries prone to natural disasters like floods and
droughts and also adds to existing water resource stresses.”
Methane emissions also impact disproportionately on poorest countries and poorest people while exacerbating human health, food security, malnutrition, clean water and other resource access concerns.
He, therefore, called on all stakeholders to join the fight against reducing global emissions to protect the world from its scourge.
Mr Kassim Gawusu-Toure, Executive Director Greener Impacts International, said the workshop was aimed at helping the CSOs to better understand the issues of methane gas emissions and how they contributed to global emissions, polluting the environment.
“It important to enhance the knowledge of activists so they join global actions in reducing Methane gas” as agreed upon at COP26 in Glasgow.
“Reducing methane emission is therefore critical if the fight against climate change is to be won,” he said.
At COP 26, in November 2021 countries representing 45 per cent of global methane emissions pledged to reduce their emissions by at least 30 per cent below 2020 level by 2030.
In Ghana, Methane had been identified to be the second most important Long Lived Climate Pollutant after carbon dioxide while efforts to address methane emission had taken several policy interventions.
GNA