By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Oct 12, GNA – Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, says Ghana is ready to advocate a world free from climate change insecurities and discomfort.
She said as the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), Ghana pledges to combat Climate Change by maintaining ambition and supporting regional and international climate negotiations as well as the necessary conditions for mitigation and adaptation.
She said Ghana’s Priorities for 2022 include the realisation of the CVF Parliamentary Group’s Charter, the development and implementation of a Climate Prosperity Plan, the establishment of a youth programme, and the launch of the Migrants4Climate initiative to raise awareness about climate migration and displacement, as well as the role of migrants in climate action.
Madam Ayorkor Botchwey said this in a speech read on her behalf at the end of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) Global Students’ Pre-Summit meeting in Accra.
The Summit was organised by the All-African Students Union and the Global Students Forum, under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
Speaking on the topic “Climate Change and its Impact on Education”, Madam Ayorkor Botchwey said Summit was a clear representation of global youths’ recognition of the impact of climate change and the need to address the subject to protect our environment for present and future generations.
She said Ghana’s foreign policy had always prioritised youth development through the use of capacity-building programmes and initiatives.
“This Summit, one of many that the All-Africa Student Union in Ghana has hosted over the last 50 years, provides an appropriate forum for youth to share experience and expertise on climate change mitigation methods while raising awareness of human-induced climate change and its catastrophic consequences for our planet,” she stated.
“Through such summits, institutions receive the moral and material support they require to carry out their mandate of defending the rights of students everywhere on the African Continent and in the diaspora.”
She said most world leaders and international institutions had recognised that climate change was a threat to achieving certain targets within the Sustainable Development Goals; declaring that there was the need to urgently limit the magnitude of climate change and its effects could no longer be overemphasized.
Madam Ayorkor Botchwey said Ghana acknowledges the adverse effects of Climate Change and was thus committed to fighting it.
She said apart from the contemporary climate change, human activities such as deforestation without proper reforestation, illegal mining activities, unauthorized settlements and improper recycling were causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and was affecting the lives as well as livelihoods of communities across the country, despite efforts to reduce these risks.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Energy, said Ghana was committed to making the world a better place for future generations.
He noted that in 2011, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Renewable Energy Act 2011 (Act 832), to provide for the development, management, utilisation, sustainability and adequate supply of renewable energy generation for heat and power.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, in a speech read on his behalf, said climate change had now become a development issue, which was increasingly taking a toll on the development fortunes of many countries, including Ghana.
He said there was already strong evidence of the direct manifestations of climate change in Ghana, such as increasing temperatures, rainfall variability, unpredictable extreme events and raising sea-level.
Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, a Deputy Minister of Education/Chairman of the COP27 Students Pre-Summit, indicated that The Paris Agreement’s climate goals could not be attained without the active participation of all sectors of society, especially young people.
He said that education was crucial to promoting changes in lifestyles, attitudes and behaviour needed to foster sustainable development and address climate change.
Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said Ghana was one of the African countries, making great efforts to drive the global climate agenda.
“We are doing our best, and I believe we are doing well as a government. Other stakeholders are also playing their roles. But the importance of students in this process cannot be overemphasised.”
GNA