Assess impact of climate change on the economy

Ghana has been asked to begin to put monetary value on the losses the country is likely to incur as a result of the impact of climate change on the various sectors of economy.

Dr. Delali Dovie of the Africa Adaptation Research Centre of the University of Ghana, Legon, said though there was a global study by the World Bank on the impact of climate change  and Ghana as a pilot country, it has not made good use of its financial assessment of the impact of climate change.

He said it may not reflect directly in our gross domestic product (GDP) but reflect in the sectors.

“In the energy sector for instance if we don’t get water in the Akosombo dam to generate power definitely the plant may have to be shut down and that is not good for us, especially, our industries. It would mean that production will go down and people will lose their jobs. If production goes down then revenue generated will also go down”, he stated.

All these combined, he said it is a developmental challenge as far as CC is concerned and emphasized that the nation has to know what it is losing as a country due to climate change.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods

Dr. Dovie spoke to GRAPHIC BUSINESS at the sidelines of a training workshop for journalists on climate change at Akosombo last week. According to Dr. Dovie, Ghana is already experiencing some leakages but has not put financial value to it.

“If you look at our agric sector which we depend on heavily in Ghana and even as a source of employment for our people and the fact that it is basically at subsistence level, and mostly rain fed, then we should be concerned when there are no rains or when the rains do not fall at de right time. It could lead to poor yield; diminish incomes and affects livelihoods of the farmers”.

He said there are various kinds of processes taking place from the human dimension as far as CC is concerned that that the country has not explored financially and that it is important we start putting financial value on the impact of CC on the various sectors.

 The Africa Adaptation Programme and the International Centre for Journalists jointly organized the training in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). The training was one of the series organised to build the capacity of journalists in the 20 African countries implementing the AAP, to report on, and raise public understanding of the need to mainstream climate resilience into national development strategies.