Media urged to focus on climate change issues

A Communications Analyst at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has urged the Ghanaian media to focus attention on climate change and its related issues to create awareness among the people and the need to develop necessary actions that would make the country more resilient to climate change.

Ms. Praise Nutakor, said the media had the responsibility to report adequately on issues related to climate change, green economy and other related issues that had serious implications for the country’s future development.

Speaking at a day’s training workshop for selected journalists from the northern sector of the country in Kumasi, she said encouraging the people to understand climate change and develop measures that would help mitigate its effect, while promoting green economy, was necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The workshop was organized by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) with financial support from the UNDP, while the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) provided technical support.

The participants were taken through the concepts of climate change and green economy, the national policies, institutional arrangement for SDG implementation projects initiatives on the policies, among others.

Mr Peter Dery, Head of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at MESTI, said the Ministry was supporting the development of climate change and green economy related projects and programmes in order to achieve the SGDs in medium and long-term planning process.

He stressed the need for the harnessing of green economy in the country’s development process to promote a healthy environment and sustainable development.

Mr Dery also called for the intensification of the country’s afforestation programme while working to protect water bodies and stop actions that further depleted the ozone.