A personal account from a 31 year old indigene of Ada, a coastal community in Ghana, points to debris in the middle of the sea as where his childhood school was located.. A few years back he had attended his primary school which was in a community on land , further away from the beach in Ada , Ghana.
Today, there are barely traces of the school or that settlement for that matter . All you see is the vast ocean. The sea had claimed the land and defined new borders. The community had to find new homes .This is a common story of Ghanaian settlements by the sea. Attempts at relocating inhabitants from their original homes near the sea or erecting sea defences are not so successful. Lately , Keta in the Volta region of Ghana suffers the same problem and residents are finding it difficult to leave their ancestral homes , threatening lives and livelihoods.
Coastal and island communities in Ghana continue to suffer atrocities of climate change. Rise in temperature, leading to melting of glaciers and ice caps is causing a relative rise in sea level. This is causing the sea to consume nearby communities.
“The impact of climate change is unevenly distributed across regions , economic sectors and society. The highest impacts will be felt by the working poor, those working in the informal economy , seasonal and casual workers , the self-employed, micro and small sized enterprises”-(ilo.org).
“We all know that the green economy is the future, but we must make sure that everyone benefits and no one is left behind,” -ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
The population in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow 10-fold between 1960 and 2050, with the worsening effect of the climate crisis, there is an increase in likelihood this population will find themselves in the expected 132 million people who will be pushed into extreme poverty by climate change by 2030 (World bank).
These and many more are evidence of the impact of climate change in Ghana and the urgent need to build resilience and capacities to adapt to the fast-paced changing circumstances.
On the bright side , the green economy can enable millions more people to overcome poverty, and deliver improved livelihoods for this and future generations. Jobs will be created, certain jobs will be eliminated , some will be substituted and the majority of jobs will be transformed.
To build resilience in Ghana, climate education, training and capacity building needs to be prioritized. As it stands, a good majority of the Ghanaian population is in the informal economy; are self-employed and in micro and small-scale enterprise space. There needs to be a deliberate and active implementation of climate-smart practices. The private sector needs to transition across their value chain , local communities should be empowered to lead and sustain adaptation projects, individuals should be climate conscious and Governments should set out regulation and policies to empower climate action.
In ANTÓNIO GUTERRES (Secretary-General of the United Nations) words – “We all know that the green economy is the future, but we must make sure that everyone benefits and no one is left behind,”
