Mr Wilberforce Andrews, a member of the UN Global Impact, has urged the government to intensify actions against climate change, cautioning against persistent threats such as air and water pollution and forest destruction.
He observed that people remained relentless in polluting river bodies, burning fossils, destroying forest reserves, and winning sand illegally despite the glaring debilitating consequences the country faced.
Mr Andrews, in an address to the media, called for a comprehensive and more punitive environmental policy backed by law to deter perpetrators and protect the environment.
He said, “Because of climate change, our rainfall pattern has changed and sometimes the main rainy season turns to be minor season, our weather changes frequently, and it often floods during the dry season without notice.”
“If we do not stop this paradigm, the time will come when we will run out of food, water and other amenities which enable us to live on this plant as human-beings, hence the need for a paradigm shift on climate change,” he maintained.
Aside from the policy, the environmental advocate insisted that Ghana must make more efforts to recycle its plastic wastes, to save the environment and stimulate the economy.
He said beyond those, citizens needed more education to change their destructive attitudes towards the environment.
Mr Andrews entreated offenders to stop endangering the environment, destroying waters result and engaging in sand winning and instead grow more trees and food crops.
“As a people, it is about time to change our attitudes towards the environment because climate change is a shared responsibility.
“We need to limit our use of single-use plastics, stop cutting down trees indiscriminately, avoid dumping refuse into gutters, and put a stop to the pollution of our rivers,” he said.
Mr Andrews further appealed to government to support who Ghanaian business or entrepreneurs to stimulate the economy and reduce Ghana’s dependency on importation.
By J. K Nabary, GNA