The Member of Parliament for the Gomoa West Constituency, Mr Richard Gyan-Mensah says the recent hikes in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG constitutes an existential threat to the climate change initiative.
This is because the high cost of the commodity has caused would-be users to revert to the traditional use of firewood.
The Rural LPG Promotion Programme seeks to essentially reduce the consumption or minimising the use of firewood among rural dwellers through the introduction of LPG.
Making a statement on the floor of parliament on Friday, Mr Gyan-Mensah indicated that the consistent usage of firewood as fuel, would impede the achievement of the programme’s objectives.
He said, “Mr Speaker, as the LPG price escalates, Ghana’s climate change initiatives will be worthless because the Rural LPG Promotion Program to minimise fuel wood usage will not accomplish its objective”.
The observation by the MP has become critical in view of the consistent hikes of the prices of petroleum products particularly, Liquefied Petroleum Gas LPG.
He asked, “How can the average Ghanaians in Gomoa Debiso, Ajumako Asaasan, Awutu Bontrase, Gomoa Olefreku, DagaSombo and Asesewa continue to use LPG if a 14 kg cylinder costs more than GH₵200.00?”
This situation, according to him, has caused many to resort to the use of charcoal which has obviously led to the drastic increase of the commodity from GH₵80.00 in October to GH₵110.00 in November.
Impact of charcoal burning on climate change
The wanton felling of trees due to the high demand for charcoal is viewed as one of the major elements that makes the environment susceptible to climate change which is now a global phenomenon.
This obviously contributes to climate change, massive flooding which intend, causes destruction of crops, soil erosion, fewer crops as well as increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Additionally, the process of burning the felled trees to obtain charcoal also contributes to climate change because as it burns, it produces carbon dioxide.
Meanwhile, carbon dioxide contributes significantly to greenhouse gases which is mainly responsible for climate change hence the continuous efforts to sustain the use of LPG among rural dwellers.
Mr Gyan-Mensah, therefore, said “Mr Speaker, Ghanaians are suffering, and the government must immediately put measures in place to curtail petroleum products’ skyrocketing prices to ease the plight of ordinary citizens”.
