Earth Day Ghana must reject coal power and go solar - GYEM

Ghana must reject coal power and go solar - GYEM

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu

April 22, 2016 6:27 PM

Environmental activists gathered in Accra to campaign against plans by the government to build a coal power plant in the country as part events to mark Earth Day.

Outside the Oxford Street Mall, campaigners from the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM); organizers of the “Street Press Conference on Coal Power”, chanted and sang throughout brunch time.

Their message was simple: “Keep it in the ground. No Coal to Ghana.”

The Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana’s largest generator of electricity, in collaboration with Shenzhen Energy Group of China plan to start construction of a coal power plant in the Central Region in August 2016.

According to the VRA, the 2x350 megawatt supercritical coal plant will be dealing with ‘clean coal’ and as such mitigates environmental effects the campaigners talk about.

However, Gideon Commey from GYEM disagrees: “clean coal is a myth being spread by the coal industry to keep their businesses afloat.”

According to the group, some of the concerns they have raised with the construction of the power plant include “about 5 million tonnes of ash waste (per annum) that would be generated from the plant, the air pollution from poisonous and hazardous gases that are injurious to health, threats to turtle breeding grounds close to the site and the destruction of the natural environment.”

While coal remains cheaper than renewable energy [mostly because of subsidies for coal], the group believes that the 1.5 billion dollar investment should rather be invested into clean energy sources especially solar; since Ghana has sunlight throughout the year.

“Anyone who tells you coal is cheap is deceiving you. It may appear cheap at this time but the amount of money that will be used to clean up its destruction and to cover medical bills of residents around the plant will eventually prove that it is not.”

According to the UN’s International Energy Agency, investments into clean energy is expected to hit 7.4 trillion dollars by 2040 while another study from researchers at Oxford University show the cost of solar will fall by 10 percent each year.

Commey believes that the way forward is “to highlight the adverse environmental effects of coal power in the media so that it would in turn become a national conversation. Because the ordinary citizen still does not know about this plant and we need them to understand the risks involved so that they can force positive action from politicians.”

While the campaigners chanted in Accra, world leaders met in New York at the UN headquarters to sign the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

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Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu