Citi TV/Citi FM, in partnership with the Natural Resource Governance Institute, has completed a one-day training for journalists from various media houses in Ghana on energy transition.
The training, with both physical and virtual participation, is a build-up to COP28, aiming to help journalists follow climate change discussions with an in-depth understanding, especially concerning matters of transition for emerging economies such as Ghana.
The workshop, themed “Building Media Capacity for Effective Energy Transition Reporting,” had its trainers as Law Lecturer at GIMPA and Country Principal at Client Earth, Clement Kojo Akapame; Deputy Director at the Ministry of Energy, Robert Sogbadzi; Commercial Operations Manager at Ghana National Gas Company, Dr. Riverson Oppong; and Patrick Stephensen from NRGI, along with Daniel Abugre Anyorigya, a journalist at Citi TV/Citi FM.
Bernard Avle, General Manager of Citi TV/Citi FM, addressing the journalists, urged them to conduct in-depth reports, develop infographics, and form partnerships to effectively cover topics that are under-reported in Ghana’s media landscape.
Mr. Avle assured a series of continuous professional development programs, where journalists will engage with experts and stakeholders in panel discussions, debates, among other activities, to help bridge the knowledge gap and expose them to resources.
“You are living in Ghana, you’re working for a media house. If people are going to do a conference in Ghana on energy transition, and they start googling stories, and your story is online, they will quote it. Don’t only write for listeners of your media house. You have to think global,” he stated.
Law Lecturer at GIMPA and Country Principal at Client Earth, Clement Kojo Akapame, made a presentation on ‘Existing Policy, Legal and Regulatory Framework for Energy Transition,’ exposing participants to environmental laws, policies, and key regulatory bodies in the energy sector.
Mr. Akapame bemoaned conflicting policies between international commitments and domestic policies that could affect trading activities. Therefore, “we need to adopt a holistic approach in passing a framework of legislation that sets the tone, creates the institutions, and provides the needed guidelines to implement our commitments.”
“You sign up to a policy that says you will not mine in forest reserves, but you have a legislative that says mining can take place in forest reserves”, this conflict he says this requires journalists to ensure harmonization of these policies and “this cannot be achieved through a piecemeal legislative intervention”.
“The Commercial Operations Manager at Ghana National Gas Company, Dr. Riverson Oppong, shared insights on how Ghana Gas is a key stakeholder in Ghana’s energy transition agenda.
Mr. Oppong warned countries in the Global South against poorly planned transitions, which will have an adverse impact on developing economies. He cited the case of South Africa, which is plagued with a power crisis after casting away coal.
“You move in a way that the global market moves. Just be careful how you move because people are going to rush in the movement just like South Africa did. They cast away the coal, and now it is more like Nigeria [with an unending power crisis],” he stated.
Deputy Director at the Ministry of Energy, Robert Sogbadzi, presented on ‘Understanding the Concept of Energy Transition and Just Transitions,’ explaining that Ghana’s 48-year energy transition (2022 – 2070) comes with positives such as universal energy access, improved air quality, employment, GDP boost, among others.
On the negatives, Mr. Sogbadzi listed deforestation and loss of biodiversity associated with the infrastructure development for these inventions. Also, “long-lived radioisotopes of the nuclear power plant, batteries of solar, and the panels” are among the downsides of energy transition, so “we have to make sure as we transition we create an industry for them.”
Mr. Sogbadzi, in breaking down the 48-year strategy, stated that “by 2070, 20% of our energy mix will be renewable, 34% will be gas thermal, 46% will be nuclear until we discover anything which is more interesting and cleaner. This is the pathway for our energy mix.”
Patrick Stephensen from the Natural Resource Governance Institute noted that while Africa is energy-poor, with about 600 million people without access to energy, this is an opportunity for journalists to intensify reports on the sector.
“All the things you have heard from the regulatory framework to what gas can do. What other alternative sources can do? If you are reporting on any of these issues from an African perspective, you have to have a context that the fact that Africa is energy-poor,” he said.
Energy transition conversations have ranged from calls for the phase down or phase out of fossil fuel, as well as ‘Just Transition’ and ‘Zero Emission’ targets.
Environmentalist and Broadcast Journalist at Citi FM/Citi TV, Daniel Abugre Anyorigya, shared his approach to covering the fast-changing and scientific area by categorizing them under three phases: “policy, campaign, and business perspectives because energy transition comes in different forms which require a holistic approach to effectively report.”
He further encouraged journalists to collaborate with fellow journalists, as “you can’t know everything, and there are so many things happening which require reliance on each other’s competence for great work.”