Accra- 11.07.2024: Greenpeace Africa is launching the Climate Justice Movement (CJM) in Accra, July 12. This movement, which follows successful launches in DRC and Cameroon, is a network of more than 30 organisations dedicated to addressing climate-related issues in Ghana and across West Africa. The CJM will serve as a powerful platform, uniting civil society organisations, movements, community leaders, and experts to tackle critical environmental crises facing the region, including overfishing, deforestation, unsustainable food systems, and the adverse impacts of climate change.
Dr. Aliou Ba, Senior Ocean Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said:
“ Recent data has demonstrated that Africa, as the rest of the world, is being increasingly affected by the impacts of climate changes. Heat waves, flooding, illegal fishing, biodiversity loss, etc. are some of the crises the continent has to deal with now. Greenpeace Africa has been conducting campaigns for many years now on Oceans mainly in Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia and we thought it would be important to extend our area of work, as other countries in west Africa are facing the same challenges, or even more.”
Dr. Fabrice Lamfu, Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa said :
“Ghana is the third country to host the Climate Justice Movement after DRC and Cameroon. Ghana is plagued by a host of environmental problems, including toxic pollution caused by poor waste management, illegal mining, deforestation, soil, water and air pollution, pollution and more. For instance, Data shows that 100 tonnes of garments leave the market daily as waste. Urgent Action is needed to handle these types of issues and many others the country is facing. And we think this strong movement will be able to bring a response to that.”
Before Ghana, the Climate Justice Movement was launched last March in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon respectively, bringing together 30 and 40 civil society organisations respectively working in the field of environment protection. One of the first actions of the climate Justice Movement has so far been in Cameroon, where the movement organised a march with more than 500 participants to commemorate World Environment Day and express the people’s demands to the ministry in charge of the Environment.
Marie Grâce Ngo Mbog, Community Mobilization Coordinator at Greenpeace Africa Said:
“We really want to build a strong movement of environmental activists in Africa, who can come together as one and demand climate justice from African leaders. It’s high time Africans came together to have a louder voice at major international events like the COPs. Africa should stop borrowing solutions to climate change and find African solutions to the climate crisis.”
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