Youth group campaigns against coal plant in Ghana
The Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM), an environment advocacy group, has marked Earth Day with a call on the government to reconsider its decision to invest in a coal fired power plant.
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At a street campaign at Osu in Accra against coal production in Ghana to mark the occasion, the group urged the government to consider clean energy and renewable energy such as solar rather than the coal fired plants which had health and environment related implications.
“Coal is the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel chiefly responsible for the 40 billion tonnes per year of atmospheric carbon pollution that causes global warming and climate change,” the group stated.
The coal investment
The government of Ghana has advanced plans to construct a 2x350MW supercritical coal fired power plant in Ekumfi Aboano in the Central Region.
The project, scheduled to commence in August 2016, will see the importation of between 1,800,000 tonnes and 2,050,000 tonnes per year of coal from South Africa.
The project, which is a joint venture between the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Shenzhen Group of China, would see a future expansion to a 2000MW plant in four years and will cost US$1.5 billion.
Industry players say the decision to invest in coal power is to meet the country’s increasing demands for power and also improve supply reliability with a base load plant, which has proven in technology to provide electricity with unrestricted fuel.
Pollution
However, according to the leader of GYEM, Mr Gideon Mensah Commey, the level of air and water pollution and the destruction of the natural environment as well as other related impacts associated with the operation of coal raised lots of public concerns about the project.
He said the project did not only pose severe environmental and public health risks to vulnerable people and communities, but was against a global transition from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy.
According to him, Ghana’s investment in a coal power plant defeated the appointment of President John Mahama as the Co-Chair of a group of sixteen influential global figures to support the UN in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said the government should reflect on its commitment to the people to protect lives and preserve the environment and invest in renewable energy instead.