As Ghanaians prepare to go to the polls on Saturday, December 7, 2024, the Environment Report under the Connecting Communities Climate and Politics for Tomorrow (3CP) Project has called on the electorates to prioritise issues of environmental sustainability in their decisions. In a statement issued ahead of the elections tomorrow, it urged the electorates to take into consideration candidates who will prioritise protecting the environment as the country suffers from the negative impacts of climate change. Ghana is currently facing severe climate change impacts, including extreme weather events, droughts, rising sea levels, disruptions to ecosystems and livelihoods, loss of biodiversity, health risks, and high agricultural prices due to erratic water supply”. These challenges, the NGO said are exacerbated by illegal mining and logging in forest reserves, river pollution, poor agricultural practices, and open waste burning. These issues and challenges undermine Ghana’s ability to achieve set targets for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13, 15 and also 6 which are all crucial supporting sectors for our socio-economic development. “As earlier stated after our review of the manifestos of the two leading political parties, NPP and NDC, none of them stated or promised to revoke the L.I 2462 which was passed in November 2022, granting unfettered access to the destruction of Ghana’s forest reserves including globally significant biodiversity areas. However, in the last few weeks, these parties have on their political campaign podiums or platforms stated what they will do to safeguard the environment, address climate change issues and end illegal mining practices in Ghana”, it said. The NGO is therefore calling on the citizenry to take into consideration the messages and promises of the various political parties to deal with the issues of galamsey, extreme weather events, droughts, rising sea levels, disruptions to ecosystems and livelihoods, loss of biodiversity and health risks, among others before casting their votes. “Remember, our vote is our power”, it added.