Climate change battle: Political will and the economy

This year’s Independence Day celebration will be remembered largely not for the usual colourful event, but rather unfortunately, that the event was almost marred by a rainstorm.

Yes, a rainstorm! A rainstorm in early March? Heavy rains do not show up until mid May. So what has changed? You may ask. The answer is not farfetched. The climate is changing, or more precisely, has changed!

In the President’s own words on that day “…Today’s rainfall also tells us something. We have heard the words climate change mentioned over and over again. It has not been normal for rainstorm like this to happen at this time of the year – early in March.  

One would have thought that the harmattan weather would still be in control. So what it means, as we have always been told, is that we must implement climate change adaptability.” 

Floods and other effects of climate change seem to worsen each passing year, with its resultant loss of lives and property.

In 2007, floods demonstrated how climate change undermines development investments with 317,000 people affected, 1000 km of roads destroyed, 210 schools and 45 health facilities damaged, 630 drinking water facilities damaged or contaminated with an emergency funding cost of about US$25 Million. 

Again, the Government of Ghana declared a state of emergency in Northern Ghana in the year 2009 after a devastating flood hit the area which led to the loss of 32 lives, and affected 260,000 rural poor people. 

The destruction of sea defence walls and the resultant loss of coastal lands to the sea, especially in the Ada areas due to rising sea levels, and other disasters have plagued us, and rather unfortunately, the most affected are the rural poor. 

Ghana’s adaptation

Though Ghana developed the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy in 2011, it doesn’t seem to have reflected in our attitude towards the issue of climate change.  Fifth of June is World Environment Day, and the important question to ask is, ‘what gains have we made as a country?’… Your guess is as good as mine.  

The inconvenient truth is that we don’t have the necessary political will needed to win the climate change battle. 

It doesn’t come as a surprise that, the two leading political parties in the country did not have any specific and strategic policy approach to minimise the effects of climate change, foster adaptability, and finally, put stringent measures in place to minimise climate change causing human activities such as continuous land degradation and deforestation, fumes from over-aged vehicles with weak engines and the importation and use of used electrical appliances which release more harmful chemicals such as carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbon  into the atmosphere clearly spelt out in their 2012 manifesto . 

Climate change has a phenomenal impact on sustainable development plans, life and livelihoods in Ghana. It is a development issue. In fact, research indicates that there is a strong linkage between economic development and climate change. 

For example, on October  26, 2011, flooding in Accra was estimated to cost insurance companies about US$20million. It is also estimated that 80 per cent of the disasters in Ghana are thought to be climate related –flooding, drought pests, diseases outbreak, wind storms and extreme weather events . 

As ordinary Ghanaians, we can do simple and basic things to save our planet and the effects of climate change. Simply walking to work or joining the bus or using a bicycle or sharing a car with a colleague, unplugging computers, TVs and other electrical equipment — if they are not being used, greening our surroundings by planting trees and turning down the air condition are easy and possible actions that will ensure we develop as a nation and yet not destroy the planet for future generations.

At the decision-making level, we need to avoid duplication of climate change adaptation programmes and encourage more involvement of all stakeholders and the creation of a one-stop-shop for climate change issues in the National Climate Change Committee level that champion a common agenda. Ghana urgently have to take serious interventions now to mainstream climate concerns in development planning so that the effects of climate change on people are significantly reduced for our generation and generation unborn.

Let us continue the climate change dialogue; Let’s foster non-partisan, non-political strategic initiatives and action plans to fight climate change, we can win the battle, but it needs political will to set the agenda and support actions by the private sector in implementing climate change-related programmes in order to boost our economy and prevent possible disaster-a win-win situation.

The writer is the CEO, Institute of Green Growth Solutions and a lecturer at Central University College 

Writer’s email: eric.k.twum@gmail.com; ekatgh@yahoo.com