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Mahama outlines strategies to curb deforestation

The President said the nation had lost seven million hectares of rainforest in the last half-century and currently had just a little over one million hectares of natural rainforest.

Mahama outlines strategies to curb deforestation

Ghana intends to convert many of its people from the use of fuel wood for cooking to gas as part of efforts to slow the phenomenon of deforestation, President John Dramani Mahama has said.

Addressing the leaders’ event of the UN Climate Change summit in Paris last Monday, he said gas cookers would be supplied to the people under the programme.

He also said that reduced rainfall volumes had affected electricity generation from the Volta Dam.

Besides, he added, years of erratic rainfall was affecting agricultural production.

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The President also told the gathering, which included a record 150 heads of state from around the world, that newly discovered reserves of gas offshore Ghana would enable the country to phase out the use of crude oil and petroleum for the production of energy by 2020.

He declared Ghana's support for the project of the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and Sahel initiatives.

"We hope this will establish an effective barrier to slow down the steady southward drift of the Sahara Desert," he said.

President Mahama noted that while China had achieved a historical feat of raising the largest number of people out of poverty in the shortest time, many people in Africa, parts of South East Asia and South America still lived in poverty.

"What is the development model for raising these people out of poverty without further upsetting the fragile balance of our ecosystems?" he asked.

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Lifestyle

President Mahama said Ghana had been considering strategies to create change in its national development.

"Through these discussions, what comes to light is that in our society the very concept of development is different from that in other societies," he said.

He said Ghana had submitted its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) on climate change strategy and was determined to achieve ambitious cuts in green house gases.

"Ghana seeks an agreement here in Paris that is binding, measurable and respected by all," he said.

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President Mahama also touched on the huge attendance at the Paris meeting.

"The record attendance of 150 heads of state and government to the conference in Paris is not only reflective of the importance of the subject we are discussing, but also it is a statement of solidarity with the people of Paris,” he stressed.

Background

The international political response to climate change began at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where the ‘Rio Convention’ included the adoption of the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The convention set out a framework for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

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This year’s summit aims at achieving a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

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