ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Hundreds of illegally imported mattresses confiscated by Ghana’s customs authority were recently burnt openly at a landfill site.
The destruction of the impounded goods is in line with laws prohibiting the entry of used mattresses into the country.
It is common place to see thousands of cartons of cigarette, canned food, drugs, wax prints and other restricted or unwholesome goods burnt openly.
Environmental concerns have however been raised about the practice of burning such materials, due to the gases emitted into the atmosphere.
Kwaku Abeeku, who manages Green Energy and Logistics Consults, says Ghana as a signatory to various international agreements on climate change, including the Paris Agreement, must reconsider alternatives to the burning of impounded goods as soon as possible.
“In the case of these open burns, aside the issue of Carbon Monoxide, these imported mattresses are mainly synthetic foams containing petroleum based chemicals and sometimes even fire retardants,” he observed. “Aside emissions, people living in the immediate environments of these burn sites and the country at large are put in a rather bad situation as we commit to global moves in combating climate change”.
Ghana, in its international obligations as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is guided by its own commitments in the nationally determined contribution (NDC) to climate change mitigation.
As an obligation at the multilateral level, Ghana reaffirms its resolve to support global efforts to define a common future that seeks to safeguard the collective interest of all nations by supporting the 2015 Paris global agreement on climate change.
The implementation of climate actions is expected to help attain low carbon climate resilience through effective adaptation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction.
In 2017, Ghana at the UN Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, pledged the country’s commitment to help combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
The destruction of contraband mattresses, clothing, food and pharmaceutical products through open burning is therefore regarded as negating the country’s commitment to climate mitigation.
Kwaku Abeeku has challenged the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other institutions responsible for best environmental practices to help halt the open burning of materials.
“I believe the time to make climate and environmental concern a culture and environmental responsiveness a mandatorily measured policy is now,” he said.
ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Hundreds of illegally imported mattresses confiscated by Ghana’s customs authority were recently burnt openly at a landfill site.
The destruction of the impounded goods is in line with laws prohibiting the entry of used mattresses into the country.
It is common place to see thousands of cartons of cigarette, canned food, drugs, wax prints and other restricted or unwholesome goods burnt openly.
Environmental concerns have however been raised about the practice of burning such materials, due to the gases emitted into the atmosphere.
Kwaku Abeeku, who manages Green Energy and Logistics Consults, says Ghana as a signatory to various international agreements on climate change, including the Paris Agreement, must reconsider alternatives to the burning of impounded goods as soon as possible.
“In the case of these open burns, aside the issue of Carbon Monoxide, these imported mattresses are mainly synthetic foams containing petroleum based chemicals and sometimes even fire retardants,” he observed. “Aside emissions, people living in the immediate environments of these burn sites and the country at large are put in a rather bad situation as we commit to global moves in combating climate change”.
Ghana, in its international obligations as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is guided by its own commitments in the nationally determined contribution (NDC) to climate change mitigation.
As an obligation at the multilateral level, Ghana reaffirms its resolve to support global efforts to define a common future that seeks to safeguard the collective interest of all nations by supporting the 2015 Paris global agreement on climate change.
The implementation of climate actions is expected to help attain low carbon climate resilience through effective adaptation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction.
In 2017, Ghana at the UN Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, pledged the country’s commitment to help combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
The destruction of contraband mattresses, clothing, food and pharmaceutical products through open burning is therefore regarded as negating the country’s commitment to climate mitigation.
Kwaku Abeeku has challenged the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other institutions responsible for best environmental practices to help halt the open burning of materials.
“I believe the time to make climate and environmental concern a culture and environmental responsiveness a mandatorily measured policy is now,” he said.
ASHANTI, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Timeabu, a farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, has in the past experienced levels of devastation of cocoa trees as a result of bad weather and poor rainfall with adverse impact on production.
To protect dying cocoa trees and the local ecology, the Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS), a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organization, has adopted the community to pilot a tree planting program.
Since December 2017, the Centre has planted 200 trees on cocoa farms and other areas of the community, in addition to sensitization on best farming practices.
A beneficiary, Nana Dasebere Boama Darko, says the farmers are excited the trees will relieve them of severe weather condition and help provide the needed shade to nourish their crops.
The Centre plans to extend the exercise to other communities across the country.
“Protecting the ecology is very important. We are likely to live a shameful life if trees continue to die everyday,” said Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen, Executive Director of CCCFS. “Planting of the trees is also to sequester carbon, and help remove carbon dioxide from the air, which cools the earth.”
Despite their importance to life, humans have cut down half of the world's trees.
“Every year we cut down over 50,000 square miles of forest worldwide for paper, agriculture, building materials and fuel,” observed Mohammed-Nurudeen.
Several research have proven that carbon release from deforestation accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the four to five billion tons of carbon accumulating every year in the atmosphere from human activities.
Ghana Bureau Chief of ClimateReporters, Kofi Adu Domfeh, who is among lead supporters of the tree planting exercise, emphasized the need to put the trees back “any way we can, as fast as we can”.
“What you may not know is that trees also build soil and offer energy-saving shade that reduces global warming,” he said. “We want to create habitat for thousands of different species and also help to reduce ozone levels.”
The initiative is also supported by the Economy for the Common Good and senior officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Fuad Mohammed and Asante Abednago, who have committed to the community outreach to help rural farmers contribute to the government's target of producing one million tonnes of cocoa.
The CCCFS aims to provide enabling environment for all species, make issues of food security relevant and tackle climate change head-on to make Ghana a better place to live.
ASHANTI, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Timeabu, a farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, has in the past experienced levels of devastation of cocoa trees as a result of bad weather and poor rainfall with adverse impact on production.
To protect dying cocoa trees and the local ecology, the Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS), a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organization, has adopted the community to pilot a tree planting program.
Since December 2017, the Centre has planted 200 trees on cocoa farms and other areas of the community, in addition to sensitization on best farming practices.
A beneficiary, Nana Dasebere Boama Darko, says the farmers are excited the trees will relieve them of severe weather condition and help provide the needed shade to nourish their crops.
The Centre plans to extend the exercise to other communities across the country.
“Protecting the ecology is very important. We are likely to live a shameful life if trees continue to die everyday,” said Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen, Executive Director of CCCFS. “Planting of the trees is also to sequester carbon, and help remove carbon dioxide from the air, which cools the earth.”
Despite their importance to life, humans have cut down half of the world's trees.
“Every year we cut down over 50,000 square miles of forest worldwide for paper, agriculture, building materials and fuel,” observed Mohammed-Nurudeen.
Several research have proven that carbon release from deforestation accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the four to five billion tons of carbon accumulating every year in the atmosphere from human activities.
Ghana Bureau Chief of ClimateReporters, Kofi Adu Domfeh, who is among lead supporters of the tree planting exercise, emphasized the need to put the trees back “any way we can, as fast as we can”.
“What you may not know is that trees also build soil and offer energy-saving shade that reduces global warming,” he said. “We want to create habitat for thousands of different species and also help to reduce ozone levels.”
The initiative is also supported by the Economy for the Common Good and senior officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Fuad Mohammed and Asante Abednago, who have committed to the community outreach to help rural farmers contribute to the government's target of producing one million tonnes of cocoa.
The CCCFS aims to provide enabling environment for all species, make issues of food security relevant and tackle climate change head-on to make Ghana a better place to live.
