Climate Scientist, Dr. Nana Ama Browne Klutse wants Ghana to tackle climate change issues with the same energy it is currently fighting COVID-19 with.
Just “like COVID-19, climate change [too] is an emergency,” she said.
Dr. Nana Ama Klutse who was part of the Working Group 1 [authors] who contributed to the 6th climate change assessment report made the call in an interview with Citi News‘ Daniel Abugre Anyorigya.
The Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Physics Department explained that the report has reaffirmed that climate change is caused by human activities such as deforestation, illegal mining, carbon emissions from factories, cars among others.
Dr. Klutse, the only Ghanaian lead author in the Working Group 1 (WG1) of the 6th climate change report said: “People are not seeing it as an emergency, so I am happy that the IPCC has been bold enough to now say that human beings are the cause of these changes. If we are the cause, then we have to get the time to make serious decisions to cut the use of fossil fuel”.
“All evidence shows that Africans don’t have any time left. We have to take the stringent decisions now, or it is going to be worse for us in our changes in the climate,” Dr Klutse added.
Ghana, which is a climate-sensitive economy, has witnessed the gradual submerging of coastal communities and low farm yields due to a high rise in sea levels and irregular rainfall patterns respectively.
She called on government to institute policies and invest in infrastructure such as the state transport system for workers to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles.
“If we have a regular schedule for state transportation, then personally, I [Dr Klutse] will not drive. I will rather join the bus and stop next to my office and use the same system to my home. It is effective in Europe and in other countries, why can’t we practice a system where we can reduce the cars on our roads?” she quizzed.
She further advised that Ghanaians need to understand the need that “we have to stop the use of fossil fuel now. [Even though] it is difficult, we have to make an attempt, we have to do it.”
“As an individual, we must know that we use fossil fuel [and understand its impact]. We must know that the other side [combating] of the whole thing [climate change] is the mitigation, where we need the trees. If it is not necessary to drive, then you can walk, bike, otherwise join somebody in a car,” she added.
On the issue of Ghana’s food security, she called on government to invest in farm inputs and long-term solutions to tackle post-harvest losses.
The Principal Meteorologist at the Ghana Meteorological Agency Michael Padi, in an interview with Citi News, charged the government to continue various projects such as the recent 5 million trees planted.
Also, he advocated for cloud seeding which has been used by Burkina Faso, neighbouring countries and other Asian countries.
“When clouds are seeded, they are able to produce much rain more than in the normal atmosphere,” he explained.