By Emmanuel Gamson
Ketan (W/R), Oct. 14, GNA-The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has engaged students of Ahantaman Girls’ Senior High School (SHS) in the Western Region to broaden their understanding on climate change, ozone depletion, and other environmental challenges.
They were educated on the ozone layer and its significance to human lives, activities that could deplete it, and what they needed to do to help restore and protect it from further depletion.
The engagement formed part of a broader initiative being undertaken by the EPA in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to raise awareness and educate the public, including selected institutions and organisations on these critical issues.
This year’s awareness creation is being carried out in the Western, Eastern, Central, Ashanti and Bono regions as part of the 2024 World Ozone Day celebration.
The overall goal of the initiative is to educate the public on the importance of taking decisive actions to preserve the ozone layer from depletion to avoid global warming.
Mr Joseph Amankwa Baffoe, Acting Director of Climate Change and Ozone Department, EPA, told journalists on the side lines that the engagement was to make sure that everyone appreciated the importance of the ozone layer and the associated risks with its depletion for the citizenry to do what was right to protect it.
He said: “We are targeting the students because they are young in terms of growth and they need to understand it better, so they can help do something to protect the ozone layer for a sustainable future for all.”
According to him, the use of electronic appliances, particularly refrigerators in Ghanaian homes emitted harmful chemicals into the atmosphere that contributed significantly to the depletion of the ozone layer.
Mr Baffoe said: “When it comes to refrigerators, that is where most of Ghana’s emissions are coming from, so what we are doing now is to try and phase out all those with the chemicals that destroy the ozone layer by 2030.”
He stated that authorities had put in place measures to introduce refrigerators with hydrocarbons which were more environmentally friendly and could have less effect on the ozone layer.
Ms Benita Arko Quaye, a participant, expressed gratitude to the EPA for educating them on the ozone layer, and said she would impart the knowledge she had acquired to other members of her community to help collectively desist from engaging in ozone-depleting activities.
GNA