Climate change, a major disaster - Ayittey
Accra, Oct 20, GNA - Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology,
on Tuesday said climate change was a silent major disaster affecting Ghanaians and called on the
media to pay more attention to the issues.
She said most people were not able to relate properly with climate change issues because they
appeared abstract though they were already having a negative impact on development, especially on
the economy.
Ms Ayittey said: "Climate change is a risk to the hard won gains made by Ghana since
independence," at a days seminar with civil society groups in Accra, ahead of an international
meeting on climate change scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark in December this year.
The seminar, the third in a series of climate change advocacy, is being organised by SEND
Ghana, in collaboration with Christian Aid and the World Wide Fund (WWF).
The seminar dubbed: "Voice and Vision on climate Change", seeks to provide a broad platform
with other stakeholders to share their perspectives on climate change and its emerging national
response to pave way for post-Copenhagen engagement.
Ms Ayittey said as part of the preparations towards the meeting, a national climate change
programme would be launched in next month to create greater awareness on the subject and called
on Ghanaians to support the programme.
Millions of people especially in Africa are already suffering from the effects of climate change,
she said, citing examples of people migrating from the drought and flood hit areas in some part of
the Northern Region.
Ms Ayittey said over 300,000 deaths were recorded annually due to climate change while over
300 million people were affected severely by climate change annually.
She said the impact of climate change was indiscriminate and could affect anybody,
emphasizing the need for people to know the situation to facilitate attitudinal change among them.
For instance Ghana has already lost about 45 percent of her forest cover, she said and
suggested an efficient regulation of the activities of chain saw operators
Mr Peter Ruskin, British High Commissioner to Ghana, said climate change was a development
issue and required a fair deal between developing countries like Ghana and advanced countries like
the United Kingdom.
He explained that fairness meant developing countries should have a common voice in the
mechanism for accessing and distributing funds.
Mr Ruskin said every country had a part to play in finding solutions to the climate change,
expressing the hope that the world would find a solution to the phenomenon in Copenhagen.
"This means a big reduction in the UK's emissions, we are committed to an 80 percent cut by
2050. With the climate change act, we became the first country in the world to have legally binding
framework for cutting emission and adapting to climate change," he said.
He said climate change could also affect Ghana's achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals (MGDs) since it could increase poverty, negatively affect education, women and children and
plunge the whole world into a disaster.
GNA