Parliament to receive climate change report soon

Accra, Oct. 7, GNA - The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), would soon present a draft report on climate change to Parliament.

The report, after consideration by Parliament, would become Ghana's policy on climate to be presented at the United Nation's Climate Change Conference scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark, in December this year. Mr George Kojo Scott, Chief Director at MEST, announced these in Accra on Tuesday, when a delegation from the Abibimman Foundation and Ghana National Youth Coalition on Climate Change, both non-governmental organisations (NGOs), visited the Ministry in Accra on Monday. He noted that climate change had affected the country's two usual farming seasons and threatened food security.

Mr Scott said the Ministry was concerned about the effects of climate change on the country and the authorities would institute strategies such as tree planting to reverse the trend. He appealed to developed countries to initiate measures that could help reduce the impact of climate change on the globe while developing countries devised means to limit its effects. Mr Kwabena Okai Ofosuhene, Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition, said the visit was to create awareness that effort towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals was being threatened by the effects of climate change. "We cannot wait, but stand up and take action to end climate change and poverty now," he said.

The Coalition would provide people at the grassroots a platform to participate in global campaigns on climate change and poverty issues and the delegation in particular would embark on a nation-wide tour to collate inputs for the report. Towns to be visited included Tumu, Nyariga, Bongo, Bolgatanga, Savelugu Techiman, Kibi, Kumasi, Keta, Asutuare and Ashaiman. This forms part of a project dubbed: "Climate Justice Poverty Hearing" that was being sponsored by the Global Campaign for Climate Action, a global conservation initiative, and World Wide Fund for Nature, an international NGO, working on issues concerning the conservation, research and restoration of the environment. It was expected to be implemented in areas where climate change has caused variations in the weather pattern.