Climate change education in schools launched

The Climate Change Education in School Programme was launched on Friday with a call on students to be change agents in helping to find solutions to the impact of climate change in Ghana.

The students were asked to educate their parents, peers, friends and other relations on the need to plant trees in their homes and schools to control the excessive heat in the atmosphere and also stop indiscriminate disposal of waste.

Dr Emmanuel Obeng Tachie, National Focal Point Person for Climate Change at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who made the call during the launch at Accra Academy School in Accra, said the students should also form green clubs and associations and lead the way of protecting the environment for successive generations.

EPA in collaboration with the French Embassy and the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft), the Netherlands launched the programme that is expected to cover schools in all the districts of the country.

Through the programme, TU Delft would help establish weather stations in the schools to help gather data on weather patterns which would also inform the students about the trends as well as help feed into meteorological services operation.

Dr Obeng Tachie said climate change has been threatening the lives of generations and so EPA as the national focal point of climate change awareness creation and education in the country is leading the way in educating Ghanaians on how to help save the situation.

“By the school programme, we intend to create a pool of youth in schools to act as change agents in educating others”, he said.

Mr Akwasi Oppong Fosu, Minister of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, in a speech read on his behalf, urged the students to take the programme seriously as their capacity are built on climate change so they could help reduce the impact of climate change.

He said the climate change policy has also been designed and more than 4,000 copies printed out to help provide the directions as to where and what the country should go and what is expected by every institutions and stakeholders to combat the impact of climate change.

He asked teachers to consult the national policy on climate change as a reference and resource for teaching students.

Mr Pierre Yves Kervennal, Development and Governance Advisor, at the French Embassy said climate change is a serious issue affecting the future of the world and in Ghana, coastal areas, sea levels, and warmer ocean are some of the impacts being directly felt.

He encouraged all to be careful about how they handle the environment so as to ensure the survival of future generations.

Mr Samuel Ofori Adjei, Headmaster of Accra Academy deplored the wanton destruction of the environment by successive generations and appealed to the society to join in the quest of working to restore the environment.

Professor Nick van de Giesen, Co-founder of TAHMO Initiative of the TU Delft, said the weather stations would help gather adequate data to educate students and guide various activities that depend on the weather in Ghana.