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Govt developing cook stove strategy …to reduce emissions

The government is developing a comprehensive cook stove strategy with support from the World Bank to help address issues associated with the Clean Cook Stove Project.

The Clean Stove Project, is a partnership initiative between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the Korean Government to address the intensity placed on charcoal production through the distribution of 500,000 improved Cook stove to various communities across the country in exchange of carbon credit.

The Assistant Programmes Coordinator at the Renewable Energy Department of the Ministry of Energy (MoE), Mr KnollisDelle has disclosed.

He was responding to questions from members of the Access Coalition West Africa, a CSO, at a meeting organised by the Coalition in Accra, to discuss the status of Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributors (Gh-NDCs) with respect to the Energy Sector in Accra yesterday.

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The Gh-NDCs is part of the Paris Agreement climate action plan to cut emissions, and adapt to climate impact. Each party or country is required to establish an NDCs and update it every five years.

At the meeting, members of the Access Coalition raised several concerns about the project, such as its failure to include those in the urban areas who also made use of charcoal.

However, Mr Delle explained that the project did not only apply to those in the rural areas, saying “the project is not only limited to only rural areas as there are some urban areas who have benefited from it.”

“That notwithstanding, there are several phases of the project. There is a new phase which is coming on board which will target urban centres,” he added.

He further professed that the future of Ghana with regard to greenhouse gas and climate change reduction looked bright, as there were a number of intervention programmes put in place.

According to MrDelle, the MoE was committed to ensuring that the country realised its dream of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions by involving the youth, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other relevant stakeholders.

In his presentation, a representative from the MoE, Mr Hanz Ablorh, explained that Ghana was among the top five greenhouse gas emitters in the Economic Community of West Africa State (ECOWAS) with an increased emission rate of 59.8 metric tonnes representing 86 percent in the past 10 years.

Additionally, he explained that the energy and transport sector contributed 46 percent of the increased rate of greenhouse gas which was projected to be around 100 metric tonnes by 2030.

A representative from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Dr Daniel Benefor, in his presentation said currently, most organisations had developed and presented a number of climate change action to government.

Delivering the welcome address, the Executive Coordinator of the Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), Mr Chibeze Ezekiel, noted that it was prevalent for theCivil Society Organisations (CSOs) and citizens in countries that had signed up to the Paris Agreement to know the plans and measures put in place to help tackle climate change in line with the NDCs.

He also asserted that the government alone could not help mitigate climate change but required a collective responsibility, and therefore charged CSOs to provide reports on its activities to reflect on its contributions towards the mitigation of climate change.

BY RAISSA SAMBOU

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