Parliament ratifies protocol on Convention on Climatic Change

The Ministry of Environment and Science has said a proposal for the setting up a Ghana National Committee on Climatic Change with wide stakeholder representation was being formulated.

The proposal was in support of the long-term objective of the Convention of the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations framework Convention on Climatic Change.

Nii Adu Daku Mante, Vice Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament stated this when he presented a Report of the Committee on the Protocol in Parliament on Friday.

The House officially ratified the Kyoto Protocol whose benefits include development of a number of reforestation and afforestation, river basin management, coastal and marine zone management project and increase in capacity building, technology transfer and foreign direct investments.

Nii Mante said the Convention was adopted in 1997 to be the mandate under which industrialised countries reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by at least five per cent.

The greenhouse gases (GHGs) are those when released into the atmosphere trap heat radiated from the earth, thereby warming the globe, hence global warming.

These gases are usually products of combustion (burning, bushfires, coal fired power generators, vehicle emissions, emissions from decaying organic matter in marshy areas, carbon dioxide, nitric acid and methane.

Nii Mante said the Inter-Governmental panel on Climatic Change has indicated that the African continent was the most vulnerable to climatic change and also the continent with the least capacity to adapt to the adverse effects of climatic change.

Some of the negative impacts of climatic change on Africa are worsened food security; 70 million people being at risk from sea level rise and increased warmer and wetter conditions leading to increased incidence of endemic diseases.

He said to give purpose to the convention and the protocol, mechanism have been developed to strengthen sustainable development and one of such mechanisms are the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is to ensure cost effective reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Nii Mante said through the CDM, developed countries such as Ghana would identify projects that could lead to sustainable development, and would be financed by either a public or private entity from a developed country.

The long-term objectives of the Convention are to prevent "dangerous anthropogenic (man-made) interference with the climate system," through enhanced energy efficiency in relevant sectors of the national economy, promoting sustainable forms of agriculture in the light of climatic change considerations.

Nii Mante said the Committee observed that by accessing the protocol the benefits derived would contribute immensely to poverty reduction and provision of alternative livelihood in many areas.

Dr Edward Baffoe-Bonnie, NPP- Asokwa East said African countries dependent so much on the exploitation of their natural resources but produce the least percentage (two) of the greenhouse gases.

He said there was therefore, the need for African countries to put in place mechanisms that would help check the increase in temperatures and natural resources.

Mr Kwabena Adusa Okerchiri, NPP-Nkawkwa said the recent cases of erratic rainfall pattern and under warmth are all phenomena, which must compel African countries to support the convention on climatic change.

He called on the researchers and other intellectuals to go to the aid of farmers with appropriate devices of clearing farmlands without necessarily burning the bush.

Mr Okerchiri said it behoves on the business community to be ready to finance research activities towards the socio-economic development of the country.