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Mr Desmond Appiah, the Chief Resilience and Sustainability Advisor at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has disclosed that transportation was the highest contributor to pollution in Accra.

He said, the observation was made after the AMA undertook an inventory of greenhouse gas effect to identify the major sources of the city’s pollutants and seek ways of mitigating the climate change challenge.

Mr Appiah said, the inventory was also to assist in achieving the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the country’s National Determined Contributions of increasing the usage of renewable energy such as solar, wind, and biogas up to 10 percent.

He was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the just ended Global Climate Action Summit held in Accra by the Ghana Reducing Our Carbon (G-ROC).

The G-ROC is a formal network of youth-based grassroots movements affiliated to 350.org formed with the aim of mobilising and empowering young people in partnership with key stakeholders to actively champion the need to reduce our carbon emissions and promote renewable energy systems as a key effort in combating climate change in Ghana.

He said another critical area identified during the inventory was the gases that emanated from poor management of wastes in the city.

He said energy from buildings also contributed in high proportions to greenhouse gas emission in the city.

This, he said, was because of the changing scope of building in the capital which he said was accounting for the use of more energy to power the high rise buildings, requiring the use of lighting and air-conditioning.

He said the fourth major source of energy contributing to the greenhouse gas effects was that coming from households, derived from cooking, ironing, and heating, among others.

Mr Appiah however said, the Mayor of Accra, Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah had developed a number of initiatives to manage the situation such as the waste segregation initiative, which started with the basic schools and now with the secondary schools.

There is also the initiative of energy efficiency, which would soon be rolled out by the AMA as well as the initiative of greening and beautification in Accra to mitigate the increasing pollution of the oxygen inhaled by humans.

He said the greening and beautification was being pursued to promote open space development, making it more green and enjoyable to ensure that no spaces were left opened for erosion to take place and further pave way for squatters to settle in those spaces.