The Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has urged Queen Mothers to join the fight against global warming.

Traditional leaders, according to the Minister, are in a key position to raise awareness about the consequences of wood fuels on humans and the environment.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh met with the National Association of Queen Mothers during a stakeholder engagement session at the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi.

"For Nananom, you don't speak for yourselves, you speak to generations yet unborn," the Minister indicated.

The purpose of the engagement was to inform participants about the National Energy Transition Plan and provide an opportunity to gather information in order to assess the current state of the energy sector, the benefits, risks, and costs of global energy transition, as well as to prescribe risk mitigation measures.

Parties to the UNFCCC reached a major agreement to fight climate change, intensify the activities and investments required for a sustainable low-carbon future at COP 21 in Paris on December 12, 2015.

The Paris Agreement builds on the Convention by bringing all nations together to commit to ambitious efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to its effects, with increased support for developing countries.

The Paris Agreement's main goal was to enhance the global response to the threat of climate change by limiting global temperature rise this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, as well as to continue efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the agreement intended to improve countries' ability to deal with the effects of climate change, as well as aligning finance flows with a low-carbon, climate-resilient path.

To achieve these goals, adequate financial resources must be mobilised and provided, as well as a new technology framework and expanded capacity-building, allowing developing countries and the most vulnerable countries to act by their respective national objectives.

The agreement also established a more transparent action and support mechanism. All parties were required by the Paris Agreement to make their best efforts through "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the coming years.

This included obligations that all Parties report on their emissions and implementation activities on a regular basis. Every five years, a global stocktake will be conducted to review collective progress toward the agreement's goal and to inform future individual actions by Parties.

According to Dr. Opoku Prempeh, countries are taking purposeful steps to minimize emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to the ozone layer's deterioration.

He said, although playing a critical part in the country's socio-economic growth, Ghana's transportation industry has been discovered to be a large contributor to carbon dioxide emissions.

"We can't eliminate cars from the road, but we can do electric vehicles. We cannot eliminate air conditioners from our rooms, but we can do solar powered electric air conditioners. We cannot stop using water heaters in our homes, but solar water heaters….," he emphasised.

Ghana's Energy Minister said, switching from wood to gas will make the country safer.

"If we can move from gas to solar, it means we are done. So everybody is being called upon to contribute to mitigate the effects."

Dr. Opoku Prempeh added that the question is how to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and that this would take a focused and deliberate effort on the part of everyone to secure humanity's safety.

He urged that Ghanaians should look out for one another because global warming affects everyone.

"We all have to work together to decrease the impact of activities that are causing global warming," he said.

Director of Policy and Planning at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Sheilla Addo, urged Queen Mothers to gather women and educate them about the environmental impact of wood fuel and the need to shift focus.