A three-member delegation from the Youth Alliance for Green Ghana (YAGG), a non-governmental organization (NGO), has called on the Presiding Member (PM) of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly(AMA), Hon. Alfred Asiedu Adjei to advocate for an Intergenerational Equity Framework Policy to safeguard the environment.
The visit forms part of a series of engagements with identifiable stakeholders in the country to push for sustained climate and environmental activism in Ghana.
Project Director for YAGG, Johnson Ofori Oduro, ESQ., who led the delegation accompanied by Prince Nketiah ESQ., Publicity and Media Officer and Estella Maria Ohene-Asante ESQ., Head of Finance, underscored the importance of responsible action to safeguard the future by ensuring that present actions do not affect generations to come.
The Policy according to him is a strategic plan designed to address and promote fairness, justice, and sustainability across generations and aims to ensure that present actions and decisions do not disproportionately burden or undermine the well-being, resources, or opportunities of future generations.
The policy he added typically involves considering the long-term impact of policies, environmental practices, and resource management to maintain a balance that benefits both current and future populations.
“As Ghanaians, we need to step up our game and become the environmental superheroes our country needs. It’s time to don our green caps, pick up our recycling shields, and conquer the environmental villains that menace our land, ” he said.
He was hopeful that the Government soon would draft an Intergenerational Equity Framework Policy that frowns on individuals and groups that endanger the environment for present and future use.
Welcoming the delegation to the City Hall on Monday, the PM who doubles as the Assemblyman for the Avenor Electoral Area also expressed enthusiasm about the essence of the policy framework and promised to provide the needed platform to officially make a presentation to the entire leadership of the Assembly.
He reiterated the Assembly’s’ commitment to address the effects of climate change adding that almost all the projects embarked on by the AMA in recent times were related to climate change, citing the zero waste strategy, the clean project, the energy audit project and tree planting exercises among others.
“The zero waste strategy for instance is a project to segregate waste while the clean and energy audit projects aim at creating an enabling environment for the informal waste sector as well as ensuring an efficient energy utilization to reduce atmospheric pollution respectively, ” he said.
He was optimistic that Assembly members would own the policy framework when drafted and adopted to safeguard the environment and their respective electoral areas.
YAGG is a national youth-led non-profit organization aimed at mobilising and building the capacity of youth from diverse cultural, social, religious and educational backgrounds, for a sustained climate and environmental activism in Ghana.