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.
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