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How Ghana will mark the day

Friday April 22, 2016 will be celebrated around the world as Earth Day.

Friday April 22, 2016 will be celebrated around the world as Earth Day.

This year’s (the 46th edition) is under the theme; and coincides with the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at the United Nations headquarters later in the day. Ghana is one of the over 160 countries that are set to sign the historic agreement on Friday.

The main aim of the is to “keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen capability to deal with the impacts of climate change.”

Around the world, some activities that have been planned including planting of trees and the annual ritual of turning the lights off in a bid to reduce electricity consumption.

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Meanwhile in Ghana, there is a different kind of activity planned. The Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) will stage what it calls a “” in Osu.

According to Gideon Commey from the GYEM, the objective of the event on Friday is to “raise public awareness about the coal plant and reach out to the media and urge them to discuss the issue on their platforms.”

The government has proposed plans to build a 2x350MW coal-fired power plant at Ekumfi Aboano in the Central Region. This they hope, will help in efforts to reduce Ghana’s power deficit.

However, coal is described as “dirty” because of its negative environmental and health impact and is increasingly been shunned by many countries to generate electricity.

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The (UNFCC) describes coal as the fossil fuel that “emits the most carbon per unit of energy supplied.” Thus continuing with the coal plant will be a direct contradiction to efforts by the Paris Agreement to reduce global warming.

The group will use the press conference to call on government to abandon the plans for the coal plant and rather invest in renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar.

Some of Ghana’s biggest environmental challenges include water pollution (with illegal mining as a major contributor), deforestation, improper waste management and noise pollution.

Ordinary citizens have been encouraged to mark the day by starting small home gardens, recycling, planting trees in parks, reducing electricity and water consumption and using public transport (or carpooling, cycling and walking).

Pulse Ghana will be reporting live from the press conference.

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