NGO launches campaign against methane emission

Greener Impact International (GII), an environment-oriented NGO, has launched a campaign against methane emission in the country.

The initiative, dubbed CAMEG, is in collaboration with Clean Air Task Force (CATF), and would create awareness of the impact of methane on health and climate change and mobilise local and national action against the practice.

The six-month campaign which was launched in Accra, last Tuesday, also intends to deliver outcomes that would contribute to climate change mitigation and align efforts to achieve the country's target of reducing methane emission by 30 per cent under the global methane pledge at the Conference of Parties (COP 26) in November 2021.

Context

Methane is considered a powerful greenhouse gas with a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide over a relative short timescale. It is estimated to be over 86 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Methane gas is generated from fossil fuel extraction and production, landfills, livestock digestion, rice cultivation and waste treatment.  The country's methane emission level in 2021 was recorded as 336.7 gigatons, which is equivalent to 27.6 million tons of carbon dioxide.

From 2011 to 2021, the country's methane emission increased by 32 per cent, while same is expected to be more than double by 2030 along a non-action trajectory.

In Ghana, the agricultural sector contributes 40 per cent of methane emitted. Livestock digestion contributes 41 per cent; wastewater and solid waste contributes 34; rice cultivation, five per cent; oil and gas, four per cent, and the rest six per cent. 

Campaign

The Project Coordinator of CAMEG, Timothy Apeanti, said the campaign would be taken to schools and market places, alongside engaging national actors such as environment conscious ministries, organisations and the Environment Protection Agency to help fight emission of greenhouse gas.

He said the campaign would be measured to ensure citizens were made aware of the grave consequences the country faced emitting greenhouse gasses such as methane which contained more pollutants. 

Impact

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Director in Charge of Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation at the EPA, Dr Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, underscored the impact methane emission had on health and the environment.

“Methane is one of the global warming gases that causes a lot of havoc to the atmosphere. Even though it doesn't stay in the atmosphere for long, it has, in terms of potency, much stronger potency compared to carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases.

“Methane gas has implications on human health and also on agricultural productivity and vegetative cover,” he said.  Dr Amoah said inhaling methane gas often could result in dire medical conditions. “If it penetrates the bloodstream, it affects the flow of oxygen within the blood cells,” he explained.

“It can make you dizzy, go into coma as a result of lack of oxygen, and also trigger cardiac arrest if the supply of oxygen or blood into the heart is minimal,” he added.

Dr Amoah further urged the government to put in place measures to ensure local farmers used methane-reducing processes and tools, and also help to convert food waste that generated methane gas as fertilisers for farming to ensure food security and a healthy environment. He said the country’s level of methane gas was projected to be 62 million tons of carbon dioxide from across energy, agriculture, forestry and other sectors.