Environmental protection bill 2003 passed by parliament

The legislation will re-enact the Hazardous and Electronic Waste Control and Management Act of 2016, consolidating it with additional provisions for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in the country.

The bill mandates the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tackle issues, including illegal mining activity (galamsey) and clear air pollutants.

The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, moved for the bill’s second and third readings on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation.

Prior to Act 490, the Environmental Protection Council Decree, 1974 (N.R.C.D. 239) created the EPA as the Environmental Protection Council. The Council advised the government on environmental issues but had no enforcement powers. With the passage of Act 490 in 1994, the Council became an Agency with regulatory powers.

The government said it was difficult for the Agency to exercise general oversight over the environment.

Institutions such as the Forestry Commission, the Petroleum Commission, the Fisheries Commission, and the Ghana Maritime Authority, among others, have some environmental provisions in their enabling enactments and exercising oversight over these institutions is not clearly provided for in the Act 490, the government said.

According to members of Parliament climate change, evidenced by the long-term changes in temperatures and shifts in weather patterns, is considered the most pressing issue facing humanity today.

This phenomenon, they argued, if not efficiently addressed, would in the long-run, completely alter the ecosystems that support human and animal life.

The MPs identified human activities as the main drivers of climate change and almost every human activity releases emission.

“Energy use, industry, transport, buildings and agriculture are the main causes for the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” they intimated.