By Stephen Asante, GNA
Kumasi, Nov. 6, GNA - The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) is working in collaboration with authorities in Dortmund, Germany, under the 'Municipal Climate Partnerships', to support global efforts in tackling climate change.
The project generally seeks to strengthen cooperation between German municipalities and municipalities in the global south in the fields of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Consequently, the Assembly would liaise with their counterparts and integrate into its development agenda, as a citywide climate change plan.
Mr. Osei Assibey-Antwi, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), said this was being done to facilitate efforts in mitigating factors aggravating the environmental setback and implement appropriate interventions.
"The overall objective is to address the needs of developing countries to both adapt to climate change and invest in low-carbon development in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13," he emphasised.
Mr. Assibey-Antwi, who was addressing journalists at the Assembly's turn of 'Meet-the-Press' in Kumasi, said the changing climatic conditions was a threat to human existence and biodiversity.
"The situation calls for broad international cooperation in building resilience and adaptive capacity to its adverse effects," he advised.
The European Commission (EU), impressed with the KMA's effort to increase the city's carbon sink through the planting of trees, recently, selected Kumasi to host this year's 'EU Climate Diplomacy Week'.
The programme, spearheaded by the EU Ambassador to Ghana, Ms. Diana Acconcia, was commemorated with tree-planting exercises and seminar to create awareness on the devastating effects of climate change.
The Assembly under its flagship programme, 'Keep Kumasi Clean and Green', had planted more than 60,000 trees of varied species in the last two years.
The programme since its inception had received overwhelming patronage from traditional authorities, environmentalists, youth groups and civil society organizations, including the Rotary Club, Kumasi.
The humanitarian club, led by Nana Poku Agyemang, had recently adopted the KMA wetlands for maintenance, and has also partnered the Assembly in its tree-planting programmes.
"We need to develop a sustainable low-carbon pathways into the future, and accelerate the reduction of global greenhouse emissions," Mr. Assibey-Antwi told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, on the sideline of 'Meet-the-Press'.
The impact of climate change in Ghana is beginning to manifest with evidence of heatwaves and other extreme weather issues such as droughts and floods.
This had come with devastating effects on the socio-economic lives of the people.
GNA
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