By Gloria Edinam Afful
Selected journalists in the Eastern Region have built their capacities on Climate Change Adaptation and Gender Mainstreaming.
It was organized by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in collaboration with the Regional Branch of the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA at Koforidua.
It was aimed at building their capacity on climate change issues to better understand and be able to educate the public.
The Eastern Regional Director of the EPA, Felix Addo Okyireh said it is important for everyone to be involved in the management, protection and enhancement of lives, because climate change has come to stay.
He indicated that human survival is very much dependent on the environment, hence the need for more work to be done to help reduce the effect of climate change on the environment.
A Deputy Director at the EPA, Dr Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, said the workshop will enable the media to play its role effectively by supporting the Assemblies to build resilience at the local level.
It would also help to incorporate climate change issues into programmes of the Assembly and understand the fundamentals of climate change, greenhouse emissions and mitigations, climate change risk and adaptation.
Dr. Amoah mentioned extreme weather conditions, such as heat waves, downpours and storms as some of the impacts of climate change. He also spoke about some causes of climate change.
“These are human led factors, production and distribution of energy, deforestation, use of vehicles powered by fossil fuel and waste management. We need to do well to minimize these factors’’.
The Eastern Regional Chairman of the GJA, Maxwell Kudekor, said climate change has caused damage to the environment which has had a devastating effect on the lives of the people.
“As Journalists we are obligated to ensure that we make society a better place, hence the need to join forces with stakeholders to speak to and help address the negatives of climate change on the environment’’, he noted.
