By Ibrahim Barrie
In a major drive to reduce climate change in Sierra Leone, there has been a growing concern and calls for youth involvement in addressing the devastating effects of climate change as well as mitigate climate change by planting more trees than cutting them.
The calls came during the National youth Lead Climate summit on socio-Economic Development and Climate Justice held at the New Brookfields Hotel on the 25th October 2021 funded by ActionAid Denmark through ActionAid Sierra Leone. The summit is held on five themes; Agriculture and Climate, Climate Finance and Green Jobs, Clean Energy, Natural based Solution, and Climate Governance and Policy.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of Action Aid , Foday Bassie Swaray referred to the summit as “urgency of now”, noting that the world in is an emergency that requires swift and collective action. "Our planet is on fire and each of us have the responsibility to put out," he said.
The Chairperson of the event, Ahmid Jalloh referred to trees as the lungs of the earth as the oxygen it gives out helps " us to be alive". He urged those engaged in deforestation for various purposes to ensure they plant as much trees as necessary. This he said will only happen when youths mobilize to change minds and impact voices on climate justice.
In her statement, UK High Commissioner Lisa Cheney said Sierra Leone is one of the most vulnerable countries in the World to climate change and ranked third on the globe.
However, she said the young population is important to integrate climate issues into local priorities.
She therefore urged the youths of Sierra Leone whom she described as “young activists,” to play a key role whether it’s on planting trees, raising awareness, changing behaviors and advocating for climate change at national level and international level," saying “the UK is a key ally to your cause.”
Speaking on the negative effects of climate change in the country, she said most villages are experiencing water shortages and that there is challenge with fish stock with over Six thousand jobs depending directly on fish production.
Keynote Speaker Representing Ministry of Environment Edward Bendu, noted that, man’s activities have done immense damage to nature which have disastrous consequences to human health and development. Those activities he said include and not limited to “deforestation, soil depletion, air water and noise pollution, energy consumption using fossil fuel and carbon dioxide create and causing carbon emission”.
Thus, he said the planet is confronted with significant environmental challenges. “Climate change and global warming impacts are now real and for all to see. We now experience higher frequencies in the occurrences of natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, mudslides, and outbreak of dangerous diseases like this Covid-19 which is currently ravaging our planet all of these and many more contribute to ecosystem destruction and a significant of loss of bio diversity,” he warned.
He added that the world is moving to a potentially devastating 3 degree temperature rise above three industrial levels.
He noted that the effects of man's activities today in the environment if not addressed, will affect the youth and children in future. "UNICEF currently estimates that 160 million children live in areas experiencing high levels of drought and by 2040, one in Forty will live in extreme water stress” he added.
In his statement, Lyndon Baines Johnson from the Freetown City Council said heat stress is causing a lot of diseases and that the environment is polluted to the extent that even the quality of air breathed is not good and that it causes an increase in “Cardiovascular disease.”
He said many people are developing asthma because of the environment which is becoming hotter every day. He also joined in the call for the planting of more trees that will remedy the high heat stress “If we plant more trees, it helps cool our atmosphere. Its helps give us a lot of oxygen we can breathe and it also helps to capture carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere,” he said.
Copyright © Politico Online 27/10/21
