Vulnerable people are most at risk because of their poor
capacity to adapt to the changing change. Reducing the release of greenhouse
gases – carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane – into the atmosphere will
help mitigate the effects of global warming.
“If we allow climate change to continue growing and
growing and causing havoc, sooner than later it will reach a catastrophic stage
which becomes impossible to manage; at that point the planet will be dead and
there will be no jobs on a dead planet,” observed Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah,
General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the
Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Globally, businesses and investors are taking bold
climate action to foster a low-carbon economy and are expected to call on
governments to create an ambitious, actionable climate agreement in Paris.
The UN Climate Change Summit this December will attract
more than 1,000 of the world’s leading companies who have vested interest in
the outcomes of the negotiations.
Whilst business leaders take action, trade unions
cannot sit aloof in the face of climate change, hence the need to mobilize
workers across the globe to have interest in the quest for climate justice, said
Mr. Ofei-Nkansah.
“Working people, trade unions are particular about
jobs; without jobs there are no trade unions. So in saying that there are no
jobs on a dead planet, we’ll like to draw attention to those who are cynical
and skeptical about trade union involvement to the fact that trade unions are
part of the citizens of the global community and that trade unions exist only
when there are jobs,” he said.
Ghana, like many Africa countries, have majority of the
workforce in the agricultural sector. Farmers have been at the mercy of the
weather in the recent times.
The negative impacts of the changing climate on agricultural
production threaten livelihoods and food security.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
access to information remains the single most important factor for Ghanaian
agriculturists to cope with the unexpected changes in the weather.
Mr. Kyekyeku Oppong-Boadi, a Deputy Director at the
EPA, says agricultural extension officers will need the right information at
the right time in order to help meet the needs of the farmers.
“Our focus is on how the farmers will be able to adapt
to the changing climate; the types of crops that they have to plant at what
time and also how they can prepare themselves in case there is a short in
rainfall,” he said.
Sustainable land and water
management, according to GAWU, remains critical to agricultural production and
food security.
The Union also expects State actors to prioritize intensification
of food production to cope with the challenge of water scarcity as a result of climate
change.
“We must have the resources to develop the kind of
varieties which can fruit even in an environment that has high temperatures,
provided we’ve taken care of the supply of water that is needed for the plant
to grow,” he said. “It is important to organize the people who are doing the
farming so that they take control of the new systems, otherwise the big
corporations will give them a raw deal”.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
