Green Ghana Day: We must build resilience, adapt to climate change – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has rallied Ghanaians to be supportive of policies and programmes aimed at building the country’s resilience and adaptation to climate change.

“Our hope depends on the actions we take today,” he noted, citing references from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) whose recent global report says, “the past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record”.

President Nana Akufo-Addo was addressing the national commemoration of the Green Ghana Day, in Accra, a flagship programme of the Government aimed at restoring the country’s lost forest cover.

Launched in 2021, the Day is an initiative of the President to restore the lost forest cover.

From the planting of an initial seven million trees of varied species, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has so far supervised the planting and nurturing of more than twenty million tree seedlings.

“Our Forests, Our Health”, was the theme for the 2023 edition of the Day.

President Akufo-Addo, giving a reminiscence of the negative impacts of climate change, said the world had been experiencing, as never before, heat waves, floods, drought, diseases and conflicts.

That, he stressed, threatened “our existence and fate of our planet”.

“Climate change is a major obstacle to sustainable development,” the President emphasised, therefore, the Government had scaled up awareness among the people on the need to embrace the Green Ghana Day.

Under the project, a considerable number of tree seedlings are being distributed to people by the Forestry Commission to promote afforestation.

“The objective is to halt and reverse the forest loss by 2030,” President Nana Akufo-Addo stated.

He also affirmed the government’s resolve to tackle in all forms the drivers of deforestation, including wildfires, illegal tree felling and small-scale mining.

President Nana Akufo-Addo bemoaned the vulnerability of Africa to the changing climatic conditions, which had been exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions.

It was unfortunate that the continent, which contributed less than three percent of the global emissions, had been at the receiving end of some of the worst effects of climate change, he said.

The President described the Green Ghana Day as “a day of hope for climate action”, as it would also help the nation promote the various protocols designed to enhance a low carbon and resilient economy.