Robust measures needed to promote environmental governance – NCCE Boss

Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education, Ms. Kathleen Addy, has called for a second look at the measures undertaken to protect the environment, urging leadership and the populace to formulate and implement more pragmatic means towards sustaining the environment with posterity in mind.

She made the call when she served as a panel discussant at the 76^th Annual New Year School and Conference. Ms. Addy addresses participants under the sub-theme, “Protecting the Natural and Built Environment for Sustainable Development” which was organized by the School of Continuing and Distance Education of the University of Ghana in Accra.

Ms. Addy, in her presentation, indicated a well-thought-through system to regulate and reengineer urbanization, as one of the interventions we can explore as a people to protect our environment, following the high rate of migration from the rural areas to the urban centres.

According to her, “everything we need or want as humans requires a sacrifice of nature”, adding that, nature is finite, hence the responsibility of everyone to ensure its efficient use before we put ourselves in harm’s way.

Without mincing words, Ms. Addy highlighted that gross, indiscriminate cutting down of trees without any plans of replacing them is a contributing factor to the current climate change we witness in recent times, advising that we go back to the days of growing trees and grasses as well as keeping backyard gardens within our residential spaces.

Meanwhile, the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, who was a member of the panel, pointed out leadership failure as part of the reasons success has eluded us in our quest to safeguard the environment, recommending a political will to enforce the existing laws on environmental protection as a step in the right direction.

Head of the Mining Department at the Environmental Protection Agency, Ing. Michael Ali also cautioned against the trend and tendency to blindly imitate the West, who put up glass structures to provide warmth following their cold temperate. He advised that raising friendly structures will be more convenient for our tropical setting and weather.

The 76^th Edition of the Annual New Year School and Conference was held under the theme, “Attaining the 5-Ps of Sustainable Development for a Resilient Ghana: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership.”.