Stop the rhetoric and tackle the issue – Okyeame Kwame to world leaders at COP 26
Mr Kwame Nsiah-Apau, also known as Okyeame Kwame, has asked Western leaders to honour their climate financing commitments to aid Ghana and other African countries to accustom to the effects of climate change.
“A few days ago some 3,000 people in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region of Ghana were rendered homeless after a tidal wave swept their homes at dawn. We are witnessing so much flooding. Rainfall pattern has changed and it is affecting our cocoa production,” he noted.
Okyeame Kwame who spoke with the Ghana News Agency at the ongoing COP 26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, noted: “the impact of climate change as being real and felt throughout the country”.
“The G20 acknowledge that Africa’s contribution to emission is very little, yet the continent is the hardest hit by climate impacts. It is important the West, whose development endeavour resulted in this phenomenon, show responsibility and act accordingly,” he submitted.
Okyeame Kwame who has fronted and became ambassador of several climate change projects revealed that he joined the Climate protest at Glasgow to urge world leaders to go beyond the rhetoric and move to action to save the world.
“I am here on behalf of the communities around Jomoro whose only river they depend on dries up quickly at the onset of the dry season due to high temperature. It is important world leaders get to know that climate change impact is making people more vulnerable”, adding that “Individuals also had a role to play to save nature by changing their eating habits, managing their garbage and ensuring efficient energy consumption.”
“Instead of beef, people should opt for plant protein because livestock alone contribute 18 per cent of carbon emission. We have to make it a point to unplug our phones when they are fully charged, and turn off electrical gadgets when leaving the house,” Okyeame Kwame added.
As part of post-COP 26 initiatives, Okyeame Kwame stated that “some 10,000 people would be mobilized by the end of the year to support the advocacy as well as extend climate education to schools”.
The global meeting dubbed COP 26, which has gathered close to 30,000 delegates including world leaders and innovators, is seeking to discuss and identify ways to accelerate climate action over the next week.
In the past week of the conference, more than 100 world leaders, including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who were at the conference revealed ways to tackle deforestation, which is pivotal in absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide(CO²)
Already, a total of 450 organisations controlling $130 trillion dollars – around 40 per cent of global private assets – agreed to back “clean” technology.
Source: Richard Mensah Adonu | Join our Telegram Group
