AGI builds industries competencies to reduce carbon footprint
A three-day capacity building programme meant to equip firms in the country's chemical industries to reduce their carbon emission opens in Accra.
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Training is designed to further enhance the sustainability efforts of participating companies and will provide them with actionable insights, tools, and techniques to effectively identify and reduce their carbon footprint.
The training programme which opened on August 21, 2023 is expected to close on August 23, this year.
Participants included 40 individuals from 22 companies namely FC Cosmetics, Benso Oil Palm Plantation, Polytank Ghana, Tobinco Pharmaceutical Limited (TPL) among others.
It is under the Climate Action Programme for the Chemical Industry (CAPCI) which is being implemented in Ghana by the German Development Agency (GIZ) and Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) in partnership with Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).
AGI’s commitment
Opening the training programme in Accra on August 21, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AGI, Seth Twum Akwaboah, expressed the commitment of AGI to build strong partnership with relevant stakeholders in order to help firms in the country’s chemical industries reduce carbon emissions.
He said there was the need for industries to take issues on sustainable development seriously.
“We need to brace ourselves to understand the challenges and opportunities to be able to take advantage and comply with sustainable development because it may have an effect on our businesses,” he said.
Towards that, he said the association had established an energy centre dubbed AGI-Energy Service Centre to educate members of AGI on energy efficiency and adopt renewables.
He said the adoption of renewable energy in the country was still low and for that reason measures needed to be put in place to increase the usage.
“Today we see renewables as expensive but in the long run it pays and so we are encouraging our members to make use of renewable energy and be efficient in our usage,” he said.
The CEO commended GIZ for its continued support extended to the AGI in the area of sustainable development.
Strengthening capacities
The Technical Advisor in-charge of CAPCI at GIZ, George Johnson, stated that CAPCI was aimed to strengthen the capacities of key actors for effective climate protection in the chemical industry, thereby enabling them to tap GHG mitigation potentials in chemical production and use as well as in associated value chains.
“CAPCI is closely linked with the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) and is implemented in cooperation with the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and the capacity building network of the United Nations Climate secretariat,” he said.
He said Ghana was one of three focus countries of the global CAPCI project, together with Argentina and Thailand.
He said CAPCI in Ghana was being implemented by the GIZ’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Cluster as implementing partner.
“The project was aimed at enabling key actors in selected developing countries and emerging economies to identify and tap mitigation potentials in chemical production, use and associated value chains,” the advisor added.