Accra, Nov. 4, GNA-Ghana like many other countries around the world continues to face the negative effects of Climate Change in terms of rise in temperatures and sea levels affecting human security landscape, coastal settlements, and the country’s economy.
Although Ghana, and other West African countries, are among the smallest contributors of global greenhouse gas emissions, they are already feeling the heavy impacts of climate change.
As part of global efforts to combat climate change, countries are looking for alternatives to mitigate their carbon footprints.
Before the introduction of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), most homes in Ghana were either using charcoal or firewood for all their cooking. With time, the introduction of LPG is helping to fade out some of these unsustainable ways of cooking in our homes. As we transition to LPG in our homes so do we have to do same in our boarding schools.
Approximately, there are over 200 secondary schools in Ghana with majority of them being boarding schools. Most of these secondary schools use traditional cooking methods to prepare meals for the students. Students in these facilities get to be served breakfast, lunch, and supper. All these meals are prepared using firewood which in turn contributes to carbon emissions and largely affects the health of cooks in these schools and the environment.
The introduction of the free senior high school system by the government has increased the numbers of boarding students in our secondary schools. This implies that more meals are being served to students which in turn requires an increased use of firewood leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity to further contribute to climate change.
The adaptation of efficient and eco-friendly cookstoves will result in the less use of firewood which will help decrease the amount of CO2 that is released into the atmosphere. Such an action will help in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 which aims at taking steps to combat climate change and its impacts. Some deciduous forest zones in Ghana are now transitioning to become transition zones and savannah areas.
The use of eco-friendly/ green cookstoves in our secondary schools will economically have an initial high cost to it but will in the long term bring about lower cost of fuel (firewood). In Ghana’s Report on the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, Grace Adongo who lives in Kasie in the Sekyere-Odumase district (Asante Region) shared her experience on the use of improved cookstoves and how she is no longer worried about smoke and ashes. She admits to using less charcoal, which reduces emissions. Grace on the other hand can save money in relation to the amount she spends on charcoal using traditional cookstoves compared to improved cookstoves. Again, the use of local artisans in the design and manufacturing of clean cookstoves will create job employment at the community level.
To sum up my taught, boarding secondary schools holds a promising opportunity to cut down on emissions with improved cookstoves which further support in protecting the environment (Climate Change) and generating economic value in terms of reduction in terms of the amount of firewood/charcoal the schools uses. Initiating this change in our secondary schools requires financial resource mobilization, technology- choices (improved cookstoves), capacity building initiatives and communication strategies tailored to suite the unique needs of each school.
Ghana can achieve this by fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders to pave the way for cleaner, greener and a more sustainable future.
By Heavens Agyei Ashong, EPA