Generally, when you mention climate change, what comes to the minds of many people is the significant variations in global temperature, rainfall, wind patterns, and other measures of climate that take place over several decades or longer.
This simply means a longer-term trend that differentiates climate change from natural weather variability.
But, currently the major driver of climate change involves human activities, particularly industrialisation that rapidly increases the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, including coal and oil.
The main greenhouse gases that cause climate change as a result of industrial activities are carbon dioxide and methane.
The effects of climate change are not far-fetched as the world struggles to cope with global warming, erratic rainfall, drought, flooding, rise in sea level, greenhouse gas emissions and loss of carbon sinks.
Ghana, though not yet industrialised, is grappling with the devastating socio-economic impact of climate change. Forestry, mining, petroleum exploration, and agriculture or farming result in the emission of carbon dioxide.
Recognising the effects of climate change risks to national development, successive governments in Ghana have made considerable strides through policies and programmes, and taken actions to increase the country’s resilience to the negative impacts of climate change.
In furtherance of this, Ghana in 2013 formulated the national climate change policy that provides strategic direction and co-ordinates issues of climate change, to ensure effective adaptation, social development and mitigation of climate change threat.
In the stream of events, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, under the Akufo-Addo government, launched a programme, the 2024 edition of the Green Ghana Day, targeted to plant 10 million trees across the country.
Citizens, including traditional rulers, children, government officials, and members of religious groups, are encouraged to plant trees along degraded watershed areas, roads, within communities, as well as on compounds of homes, schools, churches, offices and recreational grounds and parks.
The then sector minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, explained that the government adopted the Green Ghana Project to deal with the incessant degradation of forests, which has been going on for years without any conscious effort to replace the trees, and to contribute to the global fight against climate change.
He cautioned: “Available data shows that between 2010 and 2015 alone, the amount of forest our country lost far exceeds the area of forest cultivated between 1963 and 2016, a whopping 53 years, which stands at 157,300 hectares”.
However, Mr Jinapor, expressing hope that Ghana can attain net zero emission, revealed that almost 721,000 hectares of forest were cultivated between 2017 and 2023.
This, he said, was under the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy, in addition to trees planted under the Forest Investment Programme, the Cocoa and Forest Initiative, the Green Street Project, the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme, Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project, the Youth in Afforestation Programme, and the Youth in Plantation Establishment as an Occupation Programme, funded by the Forest Plantation Development Fund.
Now, the creation of the Office of the Minister in charge of Climate Change and Sustainability by President John Dramani Mahama has given another impetus to the fight against climate change effects in Ghana.
Additionally, it deepens the government’s commitment to international climate efforts, particularly the Paris Agreement that seeks to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees, to which Ghana is a signatory.
To build resilience and enhance complete efforts toward a green economy and climate-resilient sustainable development, the Minister in charge of the new office, Mr Issifu Seidu, has been tasked to co-ordinate activities of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Centre for Climate Change at the University of Ghana, Ministry of Finance, and security agencies, to tackle the shocks of climate change.
The successive governments in Ghana have taken steps to stop illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, which is contributing to the destruction of the environment and climate change threat.
Apart from the cutting down of trees, thereby destroying carbon sinks, the fossil fuels used for mining activities release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The country has taken steps to end galamsey, which results in pollution of water bodies, degradation of forests, land, and destruction of wildlife habitats, most of which help to absorb the shocks of climate change.
For instance, former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo set up an inter-ministerial committee on illegal mining, chaired by the then Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Frimpong Boateng, to address the issue of galamsey.
Additionally, the government constituted various taskforces involving the military such as Operation Halt Galamsey, and also introduced community mining, all in a bid to regulate small-scale mining and ensure responsible extraction of minerals.
This led to the seizure and burning or destruction of excavators, bulldozers and other mining equipment, yet people continue to destroy the environment, thereby contributing to the climate change threat.
Recently, President Mahama directed the Ministers of Lands and Natural Resources, the Interior, and Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to arrest and prosecute any individual or group of persons who would be caught engaging in galamsey. He also pledged to ban mining in forest reserves, and revoke all leases issued for small-scale mining.
Clearly, Ghanaian governments have not relented efforts in protecting citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable, against climate change effects.
But, land degradation, biodiversity loss, erratic rainfall resulting in water shortages, flooding, decline in food production, reduced economic growth, health risks and decline in agro-ecological productivity continue to negatively affect development.
Indeed, despite the strenuous efforts to protect the environment and fulfil Ghana’s climate action, there are gaps and shortcomings that require serious attention.
Climate information and capacity development through education and early warning systems are insufficient as they are not reaching vulnerable groups adequately enough to enhance their ability to cope with climate change and adapt their livelihoods.
Although local communities are already on the forefronts of climate change impacts, they are not consulted in decision-making on issues that most affect them.
Climate change decisions and planning are currently largely top-down, receiving less financing at the sub-national level, limiting the learning and various initiatives of mitigation and adaptation that are going on at the local level.
As Ghana continues to develop new policies, strategies, and approaches to tackle climate change, investment in adaptation projects is critical.
International and national authorities should, therefore, entrust finances and delegate authority and power to local communities to use resources to protect themselves and build their resilience.
In Ghana, tackling climate change effects has become more difficult because while farming and other economic activities are sources of employment and livelihoods, they result in emission of carbon and methane gases, which are harmful to the ecology and human beings.
The Green Revolution Innovative Thinkers Ghana (GRITG), a non-profit organisation, seeking to tackle global food security, climate change and ecological degradation, has joined the bandwagon in calling for a switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy like solar or wind.
This is to reduce emissions driving climate change, and promote sustainable land use practices, including adopting climate-smart agriculture and eco-friendly consumption patterns.
The issue about climate change is dicey because there is no way Ghana can avoid the release of carbon dioxide and other gasses into the atmosphere once economic activities continue the way they are undertaken in the country.
So what is the way out? The time has come for the government to lead the charge, and involve individuals and organisation, to collectively scale up climate-friendly initiatives, policies and projects to combat climate change and environmental degradation.
This would not be an easy task, but with collective efforts of journalists, individuals, organised labour, the clergy, health professionals, chiefs, non-governmental organisations, climate change effects can be managed, even if not entirely eliminated.
The writer is a journalist.
BY CLEMENCE OKUMAH
