By Joyce Danso
Accra, Aug. 7, GNA – Madam Ophelia Mensah-Hayford, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has pointed out the significant role of oceans in reducing global warming and pledged the Ministry’s commitment to team up with other partners to protect the sea from further degradation.
“Without the ocean, global warming would be catastrophic with extreme temperature, severe climate instability and a drastically diminished capacity to support life on Earth,” she said.
Madam Mensah-Hayford made the pledge in a speech read on her behalf at the Oceans Margins Initiative (OMI) Project kick-off meeting in Accra
Over 17 renowned oceanographic institutions from around the world have gathered to implement the OMI project in the Northern Gulf of Guinea.
The Sector Minister noted that the ocean was a lifeline that sustained not only marine life but also human life.
She said: “Indeed, we are all alive today because we have an ocean. From providing us with the oxygen, we breathe to supporting biodiversity and providing food and livelihoods for billions of people worldwide, the ocean’s role of sustaining our existence cannot be overemphasized.”
Unfortunately, the oceans have faced unprecedented challenges in recent times.
According to her, coastal communities in Ghana, West Africa and other places around the world have become increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events such as sea level rise and depletion of marine resources.
“I believe the OMI is not just another research project but rather a visionary endeavour that will fill critical gaps in our knowledge about our ocean and key oceanic processes such as coastal upwelling systems that drive the productivity of our oceans.”
Madam Mensah-Hayford pledged her Ministry’s commitment to work hand in hand with scientists to ensure that policies and decisions were data-driven.
“We will therefore work closely with this project to gather the necessary data that we need to make well-informed decisions about our ocean and the environment.
Professor Gordon Awandare, Pro Vice in charge of Academic and Students Affairs at the University of Ghana, said it was a great time to launch the OMI project because its goals aligned with the University’s five-year strategic plan
Prof. Awandare said the strategy of the university included impactful research, commitment to the various faculties and staff, engagements and collaborations with other institutions and resource mobilization.
He said the university wanted to continue to intensify its research and become globally competitive.
“We are looking at strengthening our research and continuing to build partnerships that are mutually beneficial to all involved. One of the ways that we want to proceed with our research is that we want to make it inter-disciplinary.”
Dr Edem Mahu, OMI, Co-Lead, University of Ghana, urged the public to discontinue discharging plastics and others into the ocean and rather protect it.
Madam Kate Ansah, Board Secretary to the National Fisheries Association of Ghana, there had been a depletion of fish stock hence the association was ready to partner with the academia to ensure that things could be done rightly to ensure a bumper harvest of fish stocks.
The OMI project, funded by Schmidt Sciences, USA, among others, seeks to measure and model nutrients and carbon between the coast and open ocean.
It also creates a framework for incorporating the effects of ocean margins into global biogeochemical assessment that could be applied in other regions.
The OMI project is expected to lead to the establishment of a cell phone communication network that could relay data in real-time to shore for decision-making and assimilation into models.
He said two out of the seven areas of research that the university had embarked on were research into climate adaptation and the fourth industrial revolution which involved data science and others.
GNA