Musician to launch a project on climate change soon

Accra, Oct. 14, GNA - Mister Bice Osei Kufuor,a Ghanaian Hip-life Musician, would soon embark on a tree planting campaign to create awareness on the effects of climate change.

The project code-named: "Securing Ten Thousand Lives," would encourage people to engage in tree planting in the country, using a catch phrase "when the last tree dies, the last man dies."

Mr. Osei Kufuor, popularly known as Obuor announced this after he and two others had been named climate change icons at a forum dubbed: "Africa Talks Climate," organised by the British Council in Accra. The others are; Mr Kwadwo Oppong Nkrumah, a radio presenter on Joy FM,a private radio in Accra and 13-year-old Mordeciah Nyamekye. Obour said: "I will work on creating awareness about climate change and engage people in the project that would be sustainable." Master Nyamekye pledged to engage children including his friends and folks in an informal way to encourage them to plant trees and make an impact on the environment within the next three years. "I will sensitise children; children also have a way of influencing their parents to do the right thing. This country belongs to all of us. We should not leave it to the politicians alone," he said. Dr Nicholas Westcott, British High Commissioner to Ghana, said climate change was a developmental issue that required a fair deal between developing countries like Ghana and advanced countries like the United Kingdom.

He said fairness required developing countries to have a common voice in the mechanism for accessing and distributing funds. Inviting all and sundry on board, Dr Westcott said every country had a role to play in finding solution to the climate change issue, and hoped solution would be found to the phenomenon during the world conference in Copenhagen in December, 2009.

"This means a huge reduction in the UK's emissions; we are committed to an 80 per cent reduction by 2050. With the Climate Change Act, we became the first country in the world to have legally binding framework for reducing emission and adapting to climate change," he said. Ms. Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, said as part of preparations towards the conference, a national climate change programme would be launched in November to create awareness and called for support from Ghanaians.

Ms. Anu Mohammed, Researcher at BBC World Service Trust, a charity organisation that uses the media to support development, sharing highlights from a research conducted, said most people interviewed in Ghana could give any clear explanation for the changes in weather conditions. Giving examples of people's explanation for the changes in weather, she cited a man in Accra as saying, "It looks as if God is changing his calendar." 14 Oct. 09