Be responsible towards environment – Dr Jantuah

The Chief Executive Officer of African Energy Consor­tium Limited, Dr Kwame Jantuah, has appealed to Ghana­ians to be responsible towards the environment in order to secure the future of the country.

According to him, Ghana’s quest to attain environmental sustainabil­ity would continue to prove elusive unless the citizenry take up the responsibility to ensure it.

He said beyond the political-will from political actors, Ghanaians must show much more interest in issues of the environment, stress­ing that “We can blame the lack of political-will for things like galam­sey and destruction of our water bodies, but if we as citizens don’t take up the responsibility to ensure environmental sustainability, then we will fail future generations.”

Dr Jantuah made the call at the second edition of the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) Environ­mental Sustainability Summit in Accra yesterday.

This year’s summit held in collaboration with the University of Energy and Natural Resourc­es (UENR) was on the theme: ‘Climate change and its impact on food systems and sustainable environment’.

The summit sought to highlight the significance of addressing climate change and its effects on food systems which had gained greater importance.

It was structured into two sessions with the topic for the first plenary session: Climate change and its impact on sustainable agriculture, and resilient agri-food systems in Ghana, while the topic for the second session was: Striking a balance between resource exploitation and environmental sustainability: The role of mining, oil and gas companies.

Dr Jantuah said despite the country’s abundance resource, there was very little benefit which had accrued to the country.

He said the level of degradation in the name of resource exploita­tion was very worrying as the level of benefits did not correspond with the level of development.

On his part, the Vice Chancel­lor of UENR, Professor Elvis Asare-Bediako, commended the B&FT and its partners for organis­ing the summit.

He explained that the summit provided a valuable platform for addressing climate change and food systems which was a critical issue.

“While the climate may change, our resilience as a people to do our best to mitigate it will not change. And the University of Energy and Natural Resources is poised as a key partner in this fight to do all it can for Ghana and humanity,” he said.

Prof. Elvis Asare-Bediako said the effects of climate change on food systems were expected to be widespread, intricate, varying geographically and temporally, and significantly influenced by socio­economic conditions.

“According to the Food and Ag­riculture Organisation (FAO), food systems encompass a wide range of interconnected activities involv­ing various factors that contribute to the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consump­tion, and disposal of food products originating from agriculture, forest­ry, or fisheries,” he stressed.

He explained that these systems were embedded within broader economic, societal, and natural environments.

In addition, he said food systems were characterised by environmen­tal, biophysical, and socioeconomic drivers, which are aligned with the three pillars of sustainable devel­opment.

“Moreover, food systems should possess the capacity to address the four dimensions of food security: availability, access, stability, and utilisation,” he emphasised.

 BY CLIFF EKUFUL