Ghana’s capital city, Accra, has been adjudged one of the most active among twenty-one others in the world by the C40 Cities climate leadership group a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change for taking ambitious climate action. 

According to the international organization in a statement released on Monday, the City of Accra and other cities did not only take “exceptional measures and contributed additional resources to support the sharing of best practices among cities but also provided extraordinary thought leadership and represented the C40 network globally.”

The C40 Cities also revealed that the leading cities had been extraordinarily active in the C40 network throughout 2019 hence the need to “take a step back and acknowledge the great level of commitment, engagement and participation of member cities in 2019.

“2019 has been an extraordinarily important year. Twelve C40 cities published plans which will help C40 collectively half emissions by 2030 to deliver low-carbon resilient and inclusive development consistent with the 1.5˚C goal. Over 50 more C40 cities are set to follow suit in 2020,” the release said. 

Mr Desmond Chris Appiah, C40 City Advisor/Chief Sustainability and Resilience Advisor to the Mayor of Accra,  who is the city lead in a reaction stated that Accra would be the second city to release its a climate action plan, in Africa which would target key greenhouse emission sources now and projected to increase if business as usual scenarios continues.

Mr Appiah intimated that at the current rate of greenhouse emissions, population growth and rate of city expansion and energy demands the transportation sector would become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the city.

“It is in light of this that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has closed down illegal dumpsites were located at Mallam Market, Dansoman Glefe and Bawaleshie among others, monitoring waste collection service providers to improve waste collection coverage and also engaging the informal sector,” he said. 

Other cities named include Johannesburg and Durban in Africa, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco in North America, Medellin, Sao Paulo, and Mexico City in Latin America, London, as well as Copenhagen and Millan in Europe. 

The rest are Dubai, Dhaka Delhi in South and West Asia, Hong Kong, Qingdao and Nanjing in Central East Asia and Seoul, Tokyo and Melbourne in East, South East and Oceania.