The Energy Commission has begun an outreach programme to sensitise schools to use less energy to perform the same task with equal results. 

The exercise is also geared towards addressing issues of climate change and energy efficiency in the country.

At the first forum under the Accra Academy last Thursday, the Director of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency of the Energy Commission, Kofi Agyarko, said the outreach was a national call to encourage the public, simulation exercise particularly, young people to be ambassadors of energy efficiency and conservation.

Accra Academy was identified as one of the schools with high energy consumption.

“So we will use the opportunity to equip students and staff of the school with the necessary skills and knowledge about the benefits of saving energy and identify ways to reduce energy consumption,” Mr Agyarko said.

He added that energy efficiency and conservation should be a national concern for all, adding that “not only to old guys who control the budget but to everybody, especially students because they are the future leaders”.

He said as precious as energy was, it had become expensive and so there was the need for all to pay more attention to its usage for the country’s economic development.

Mr Agyarko said students needed to be conscious of how they used power to help the school to spend less with better output from the little they spent on energy.

Mr Agyarko expressed the hope that cutting down on energy consumption would save the environment and the economy, and improve the economic circumstances of the school.

He, therefore, charged the students to be responsible, and to improve on the conditions of the earth, adding that the commission intended to reach out to schools across the country.

“At the end, you would know how to save energy to save the budget resources and then apply the saving for other critical areas that are useful to the school,” he added.

Climate change

In an engagement with the students, an energy efficiency expert, Edwin Tamakloe, indicated that some human activities such as burning of coal, oil and gas for electricity, cutting down trees, waste disposal and increase in livestock were the main drivers of climate change in the country.

He added that such activities had led to a change in snow and rain patterns, changes in animal migration and life cycle, rising sea levels, rising temperatures and damaged corals.

Mr Tamakloe advised that energy efficiency and conservation were needed to ensure less electricity use, less carbon dioxide emissions, protect the climate, reduce energy cost and save money.

He added that in order to be energy efficient, the school management needed to be more technology driven, adopt a behavioural change that would lead to the reduction of energy consumption, as well as invest in energy conservational technologies.

That, he said, would help the school to use less electricity, protect the climate, reduce energy cost and save money.

“When the actions are properly adhered to, it would help to achieve the Sustainability Development Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action),” he said.

Sustainable action

The Headmaster of Accra Academy, Emmanuel Ofoe Fiemawhle, later said in an interview that his outfit would ensure that energy was used sustainably by paying critical attention to energy efficiency for the betterment of the school. 

SOURCE: GraphicOnline