Research to mitigate climate change effects launched
A research project to help mitigate the effects of climate change on the socio-economic development of vulnerable groups has been launched in Accra.
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The project, known as the Pan-African and Trans-Disciplinary Lens on the Margins: Tackling the Risks of Extreme Events (PALM-TREEs), will assess the impact of climate change on vulnerable groups such as women in Ghana.
The three-year research is being conducted by the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani in the Bono Region and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), with support from Sustainable Solutions for Africa (SSA).
It will be funded by the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE), the UK Department for International Development and the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
While the UENR is researching the impact of heat waves and heat stress on women in Accra, the KNUST research will focus on the effect of flooding and drought on vulnerable groups in the White Volta Basin of the country.
Apart from Ghana, similar researches under the PALM-TREEs project, which assess psycho-sociological impacts of other forms of climate change on other vulnerable groups such as the disabled and the aged, are being conducted by other universities in Kenya, South Africa, Cameroun and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Preparation
As part of the preparatory grounds for the project, a workshop has been held in Accra, focusing on the research being conducted by the UENR.
It brought together women’s groups, researchers and institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA) and other civil society organisations on climate change to dialogue on the research, as well as build capacity on climate change.
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Climate change
A Senior Lecturer at the UENR’s Department of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences and one of the supervisors of the project, Dr Naomi Kumi, said climate change had become part of the world and, therefore, there was a need to take action to mitigate its effect.
The research, she said, decided to focus on the heat waves aspect of climate change due to the negative impact it could have on people in the country.
“As the earth’s climate warms, hotter-than-usual days and nights are becoming more frequent and heat waves are expected to become more frequent and intense.
Increases in these extreme heat events can lead to more heat-related illness and deaths, especially if people and communities do not take steps to adapt,” she said.
On why the research will focus on Accra and women, Dr Kumi explained that heat stress was likely to have a more negative impact on densely populated cities such as Accra, while women had been classified as vulnerable groups.
Solutions
A social research lead from the SSA, Dr M’koumfida Bagbohouna, said the overall objective of the research was to gain insight and proffer solutions to the negative impact of climate change on the continent.
“The project is looking at assessing the impact of extreme events caused by climate change on the marginalised and vulnerable groups of society,” she said.
A PhD student at the UNER, Rachel Yeboah Nketiah, who is conducting the research as part of her academic project, said the research, apart from adding to the country’s climate change adaptation strategies, could also be crucial for development planning that seeks to support vulnerable groups.
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