Let’s prioritise issues of climate change — Minority Leader

The Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has called for the prioritisation of policies on climate change in the nation's development agenda. 

“We are not doing enough as a country by not allocating enough resources to support the containment of climate change,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu, who is the National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, made the call at the closing ceremony of a two-day conference on climate change and sustainable employment creation in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, last Saturday.

It was on the theme: "Mitigating the impact of climate change on sustainable employment creation," and was organised by a Youth Advocacy Rights Organisation (YARO), a Tamale-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) with support from the Friedrich-Ebert -Stiftung (FES) Ghana Office, and the Economic Policy Competence Centre (EPCC).

It was aimed at sensitising participants and generating recommendations to a collective action against climate change effects on sustainable employment.

The event was attended by members of the academia, civil society organisations (CSOs), MPs and some members of the public.

Allocation of resources

Mr Iddrisu stressed the need for the allocation of more resources to the fight against climate change while urging the people to take a critical look at issues concerning climate change and its effect on agriculture and related activities of job creation, especially in Northern Ghana.

He suggested to the conference organisers to consider presenting a paper on climate change at the Speaker of Parliament breakfast meeting.

The Minority Leader further pledged the commitment of MPs in championing the cause of climate change at all levels.

He commended Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for the continuous promotion of matters relating to democracy and social justice in the country, saying it was worthy of note that FES had also taken matters of climate change as an important subject that required the attention of all stakeholders.

Collaboration

During a panel discussion on climate governance and the achievements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country; the role of Parliament, the panellists called for a collective effort to tackle climate change issues in the country.

Dr Kennedy Alatinga, who represented the academia, also called on both sides of Parliament to come together to deliberate and help find solutions to the issues.

For her part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Savannah Women Integrated Development Ghana (SWIDA), a CSO, Hajia Alima Sagito, said governance programmes on climate change should involve everybody, including women and the youth since they impacted on their livelihoods.

Both NDC MPs for Tamale Central and North constituencies, Messrs Murtala Mohammed and Alhassan Suhuyini, said Parliament was not responsible for policy formulation but was only involved in fine-tuning them for implementation.

According to them, it was the Executive arm of government that was responsible for the successful implementation of policies.

On felling of Rosewood trees in Northern Ghana, Mr Suhuyini advised that the trees must be replanted for the sake of future generations.