One of the biggest issues facing the globe now is climate change. Since climate change does not happen in a vacuum, its causes and effects are interconnected with those of other industries, geographical areas, ecosystems, and sociocultural and economic systems. In view of this, the team from RAIN sensitized some communities within the Atwima Mponua and Asante Akim North Districts of the Ashanti Region on the issues of Climate Change. Participants were enlightened on key causes such as fumes (industrial, vehicular and bush burning), deforestation, methane emission from landfills, rearing of animals amongst others. Rights and Advocacy Initiatives Network (RAIN) and ClientEarth in partnership with Nkawie District of the Forest Service Division commemorated the International Day of Forests with a district forest forum at Nyinahin in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region. The forum dubbed “Fostering partnership to safeguard our forests” served as an avenue to educate and promote collaboration among the different stakeholders including community groups, traditional leaders, different governmental institutions, departments and agencies and private sector to address the menace of deforestation and forest degradation and its associated impact on the environment and humanity.

Also, the impacts of Climate Change such as sea level rise, severe storms, intense droughts, floods, heat waves etc) and their implications on our social and economic setting such as scarcity of food and water, violence, heat related mortality and illness, energy shortages, damaged property etc. were discussed.

The indegens were then educated on some practical ways of mitigating Climate Change at the individual to the community level and this includes: the incorporation of trees in the environment to make use of the abundant carbon, the use of green energy such as solar panels to trap energy from the sun and the promotion of sustainable transportation such as electronic cars, conservation of energy at the homes, and increased consumption of plant.