Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology,
on Tuesday said climate change is a silent major disaster affecting Ghanaians and called on the media to pay more attention to the issue.

She said most people are not able to relate properly with climate change issues because they appeared abstract though they were already having a negative impact on development, especially on the economy.

Ms Ayittey said: "Climate change is a risk to the hard won gains made by Ghana since independence," at a days seminar with civil society groups in Accra, ahead of an international meeting on climate change scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark in December this year.

The seminar, the third in a series of climate change advocacy, is being organised by SEND Ghana, in collaboration with Christian Aid and the World Wide Fund (WWF).

The seminar dubbed: "Voice and Vision on climate Change", seeks to provide a broad platform with other stakeholders to share their perspectives on climate change and its emerging national response to pave way for post-Copenhagen engagement.

Ms Ayittey said as part of the preparations towards the meeting, a national climate change programme would be launched in next month to create greater awareness on the subject and called on Ghanaians to support the programme.

Millions of people especially in Africa are already suffering from the effects of climate change, she said, citing examples of people migrating from the drought and flood hit areas in some part of
the Northern Region.

Ms Ayittey said over 300,000 deaths were recorded annually due to climate change while over 300 million people were affected severely by climate change annually.

She said the impact of climate change was indiscriminate and could affect anybody, emphasizing the need for people to know the situation to facilitate attitudinal change among them.

For instance Ghana has already lost about 45 percent of her forest cover, she said and suggested an efficient regulation of the activities of chain saw operators.

Mr Peter Ruskin, British High Commissioner to Ghana, said climate change was a development issue and required a fair deal between developing countries like Ghana and advanced countries like the United Kingdom.

He explained that fairness meant developing countries should have a common voice in the mechanism for accessing and distributing funds.

Mr Ruskin said every country had a part to play in finding solutions to the climate change, expressing the hope that the world would find a solution to the phenomenon in Copenhagen.

"This means a big reduction in the UK's emissions, we are committed to an 80 percent cut by 2050. With the climate change act, we became the first country in the world to have legally binding framework for cutting emission and adapting to climate change," he said.

He said climate change could also affect Ghana's achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) since it could increase poverty, negatively affect education, women and children and plunge the whole world into a disaster.


Source: GNA