Environment and Climate Reporting Archives

Ghana to spend Ghc8 billion on new 24-hour markets – but nothing to stop toxic air making traders sick.

Every morning, shortly before eight o’clock, Mma Teni spreads a rubber sheet on the ground at the entrance to the Bolgatanga new market. She tips out a heavy sack of second-hand clothes, and a cloud of plastic particles rises into the air to mix with diesel fumes and smoke from charcoal fires. As she settles…

Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith
Video

Smoke and Promises: Inside Ghana’s slow-moving electric bus revolution

By Wonder Ami Hagan with New Narratives For twelve years Philip Quansah drove a trotro through Accra’s traffic, breathing in whatever came through the window. He didn’t think much of the catarrh (sinus congestion), the coughs, the headaches. They were just part of the job. Six months ago, he had the chance to switch to driving an…

Wonder Ami Hagan
Adom Online

Ghana to spend Ghc8 billion on new 24-hour markets – but nothing to stop toxic air making traders sick.

By Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith in Bolgatanga Summary Every morning, shortly before eight o’clock, Mma Teni spreads a rubber sheet on the ground at the entrance here to the Bolgatanga new market. She places a stone at each corner to hold it flat, then tips out a heavy sack of second-hand clothes. A cloud of…

Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith
A1radio

This is unacceptable: Inside the Environmental Protection Authority Raid That Exposed an Illegal Chinese-Owned Gold Mine Using a Banned Chemicali

During the raid, EPA officials found evidence that the mine was operating without proper authorization and using cyanide, a highly toxic chemical banned in Liberia due to its devastating impact on water sources and human health. The agency described the situation as “unacceptable,” stressing that such practices not only endanger local communities but also undermine…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Video

“Smoke in Their Lungs Ghana’s Firefighters Fight a Silent Battle”

Did you know that every time a firefighter in northern Ghana runs into a burning home or a field engulfed in flames, he may be giving up a piece of his lungs to keep someone else alive? Picture a man standing in a cloud of smoke so thick it clings to his skin and sinks…

This is unacceptable: Inside the Environmental Protection Authority Raid That Exposed an Illegal Chinese-Owned Gold Mine Using a Banned Chemical

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary GEORGE MOKO TOWN, Montserrado County – When the Environmental Protection Agency Executive Director Emmanuel Urey Yarkpawolo stepped onto the sprawling mining site here in Todee District, he was stunned by what he saw. Before him lay acres of freshly cleared forest, excavators still at…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Frontpage Africa

Liberia’s Empty Harvest: How Gambling Is Draining the Labor from Rural Farms

The story highlights how gambling is pulling young men away from Liberia’s rural farms, leaving fields untended and harvests diminished. Many farmers complain that instead of working, laborers spend their days at betting shops, chasing quick wins. This shift drains vital manpower from agriculture, undermines food production, and deepens poverty in communities that depend on…

Joseph Titus Yekeryan
Video

Cleaner air, lower costs: Electric bikes find early adopters in Ghana’s north

“Now I don’t inhale the smoke anymore,” Rahinatu says with a smile. “The ride is quieter, and I feel better.” Rahinatu is part of a small but growing shift in Bawku, where electric bikes are gradually changing how people experience their daily journeys. Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen reports in this social media Video. To read more about…

Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen
Video

Liberia Goes Solar: Power Is Reaching More Liberians as a Record Number of Panels Enter the Country, but Experts Warn Access Challenges Remain

Liberia is experiencing a surge in solar energy adoption, with a record number of panels entering the country. This expansion is helping more households and businesses gain access to electricity, particularly in rural areas where the national grid is limited. However, experts caution that challenges remain, including affordability, maintenance, and ensuring equitable distribution of solar…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Video

Liberia Goes Solar: Power Is Reaching More Liberians as a Record Number of Panels Enter the Country, but Experts Warn Access Challenges Remain

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary Every morning before sunrise, Karrus Hayes loads a pickup truck in Paynesville and points it toward the interior. The road to Bapolu County is long. The road to Sinoe is longer. But he goes to those rural counties anyway because people there are waiting…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Frontpage Africa

Female Electric Kehkeh Drivers Are Breaking Barriers and Fighting Air Pollution

“Sherman’s journey reflects a broader shift taking place on Monrovia’s streets. A small but growing group of women is entering Liberia’s male-dominated transport sector through a fleet of electric kehkehs. The vehicles are helping Liberia address two persistent challenges: limited economic opportunities for women and worsening air pollution from thousands of gasoline-powered vehicles. For the…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Video

Female Electric Kehkeh Drivers Are Breaking Barriers and Fighting Air Pollution

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary Teta Sherman was sitting at home, bored, watching television when a friend told her about a company looking for women to drive kehkehs, three-wheeled taxis that carry the majority of Liberians throughout the country’s capital every day. Her first reaction was disbelief. Driving a…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Frontpage Africa

Curbing Environmental Pollution: Farmers urged to desist from burning, adopt

Curbing Environmental Pollution: Ghanaian farmers urged to desist from burning, adopt sustainable best practices – Evening News on Adom TV (21-06-26) This story was a collaboration with New Narratives, with funding from the Clean Air Fund. The donor had no say in the story’s content….

Prince Owusu Asiedu
Adom TV

Ghana farmers’ burning practices fuel growing air pollution and environmental crises

By Prince Owusu Asiedu Asutsuare (Shai Osudoku District) – Experts are raising urgent concerns over the widespread practice of burning crop waste and trees to clear farmlands across Ghana, warning that it is fueling a growing public health and environmental crisis. Burning just one kilogramme of crop residue produces smoke levels more than 100 times…

Prince Owusu Asiedu
Joyonline

Liberia’s Rice Revolution: Experts Say A Proven Model Offers Hope to Break Dependence on Imports and Reduce Hunger

Liberia is gradually adopting the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a proven farming method that experts say could help the country grow more food and reduce its dependence on imports. Farmers using the system report yields rising from just one to two tons per hectare to as much as five or even seven, according to…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Video

Liberia’s Rice Revolution: Experts Say A Proven Model Offers Hope to Break Dependence on Imports and Reduce Hunger

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, New Narratives climate and environment correspondent Summary Liberia is slowly adopting what experts say is a proven rice farming method that could help the country grow more food and reduce its dependence on imports. The program known as “System of Rice Intensification” has been used successfully in other countries to increase…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Frontpage Africa

“Doctors thought I smoked weed”: the women trapped in Ghana’s charcoal trade

Margaret Awuni sits close to a heap of burning wood, her face masked by despair. Thick smoke curls around her as she coughs again and again as the wood burns down to charcoal that she then sells to workers here. Awuni, 48, has been doing this work since she lost her job as a trader…

Lordina Agyemang
Video

Cleaner air, lower costs: Electric bikes find early adopters in Ghana’s north

By Mahmud Mohammed Nurudeen Every morning, Bukari Rahinatu used to ride through clouds of exhaust on her way to work in Ghana’s northeast town bordering Burkina Faso and Togo. The 25-year-old graduate from the University of Education, Winneba, says the smoke from fuel-powered motorbikes became part of daily life in the busy northern town. By…

Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen
Joy Online

TOXIC AIR, BLOCKED AIRWAYS – THE TOLL OF GHANA’S POOR AIR QUALITY ON ASTHMATICS

BY ABIGAIL ANNOH Little Myles has been battling chronic asthma since he was two. Four years on, the boy lives with his single mother Bernice, here along the Pokuase-Nsawam highway. Long delayed road construction has shrouded the nearby communities for four years. That added to the area’s vehicle emissions and fumes from cooking and waste…

Abigail Annoh
Ghanaian Times

African Development Bank Weighs Into Carbon Trading Debate Rejecting Government Claim that a Policy Was Linked to Bank Support

The African Development Bank has firmly rejected claims that its financial support to Liberia was contingent on the country adopting a carbon trading policy. In a statement, the Bank clarified that its recent financing package focused on fiscal sustainability and governance in the mining sector, with no mention of carbon trading. “Carbon market trading decisions…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Video

African Development Bank Weighs Into Carbon Trading Debate Rejecting Government Claim that a Policy Was Linked to Bank Support

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary On the evening of April 23, a group of ministers and stakeholders – including civil society and community leaders – gathered at a hotel in Monrovia for a stakeholder dinner with the goal of approving Liberia’s draft carbon market policy. The timing was urgent, they were told….

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Frontpage Africa