Mr George Opare Asare, Project Manager, Ignitia, says climate change is no longer an environmental issue but currently a major threat to global and national security that must urgently be address.
Ignitia, an international organisation providing hyper local forcasts and climate smart advice to farmers across West Africa, is concerned about the “threat multiplier” effect of climate change, worsening resource conflicts, displacing millions, and weakening government institutions.
Extreme weather events and sea-level rise forces millions of people to relocate, straining infrastructure and creating refugee crises.
Mr Asare said this at a capacity building workshop on: “Strengthening Climate Reporting for Media Professionals and Climate Enthusiasts” at Dodowa in the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region.
The workshop, organised by EcoClub 360, in collaboration with Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and Embassy of Denmark, aimed at building participants’ capacity on climate science and Ghana’s climate policy framework.
It also focused on climate communication and storytelling techniques to enable participants to navigate the complexities of accurate climate information dissemination.
Participants were selected from different sectors including the media, education, health, security, civil society, and industry, expressing delight at the initiative that sought to coordinate efforts towards combating the global climate crisis.
Mr Asare said the Syrian war was partly triggered by a prolonged drought that caused crop failures, hunger, migration, and stress, ultimately leading to conflict.
Similarly, in Ghana, Fulani herdsmen migrated south in search of green pastures, but their nomadic farming practices led to conflicts with local farmers, resulting in crop damage and loss of lives.
“In Northern Nigeria too, similar incidences are happening where Fulani men are moving towards places where the rainfall pattern is more conducive for agricultural production, and such places the farmers are also there,” he said.
“Climate change and environmental degradation can drive migration, conflict, and violence, highlighting the need to address these underlying factors to prevent and resolve conflicts”.
He said climate change harmed the environment, impacted humans, plants, and animals, and fueled the spread of diseases through extreme weather events like floods and heatwaves, emphasising the need to address environmental degradation to safeguard human health.
Climate change also impacted agriculture, leading to crop failures, while negatively impacting education worldwide, causing destruction to school infrastructure due to flooding and other extreme weather events.
To address these, he mentioned two types of solutions: “Big solutions” that required policy changes and government action, and “small solutions” that individuals could implement in their daily lives.
He said transitioning to renewable energy sources, implementing sustainable transportation practices such as carpooling, and adopting plant-based diets could significantly mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting environmentally conscious lifestyles.
Individual behavioral changes could collectively make a significant impact in reducing carbon footprint, while also advocating policy implementation as the “bigger solutions” to climate change.
Dr Derek Sarfoh-Yiadom, Climate Change Expert, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), explained that Ghana had developed multiple policies to combat it, including the National Climate Change Policy, the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, Climate Change Policy Master Plan and the Nationally Determined Contributions.
He said those policies targeted specific sectors like Energy and Agriculture and were supplemented by sector-specific policies such as the Smart Agriculture Policy and district-level long-term plans.
By Edward Dankwah, GNA
