The Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), commemorated International Day of Biodiversity with a hybrid event  as part of its Banks and Biodiversity No Go Policy campaign under the theme “Building a Sustainable future for all. The role of banks”.

SYND held the event in partnership with Friends of the Earth USA, Gower Street, African Climate Reality Project (ACRP) and was actively participated by various bank representatives and some key youth climate change activists from across the country.

 

The Executive Coordinator of SYND Ghana, Mr. Chibeze Ezekiel noted in his remark that to build a sustainable future for all, there is a need for the banks to educate and share with us what they are doing in sustaining the environment.

 

Educating participants on the need for biodiversity, Mr. Nana Yaw Bamfo Turkson, an Operational Risk Manager of Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) was of the view that “we should be bothered about biodiversity because there are statistics to show that it comes back to bite us”.

 

He said an estimated 12.6 million people die yearly because of living or working in unhealthy environments globally with 2.2 million coming from Africa.

 

A recent country demography analysis by the World Bank shows that Ghana loses 4 million dollars as cost of Environmental degradation”.

Also, GCB has adopted what it calls the Triple P bottom line approach; People, Plant and Profit but Profit should be the least.

 

Furthermore, that Banks should have a sustainable banking unit to look at sustainable financing and should also have policies in place and laws that can bite.

There is the need for us to remember that we have not inherited the Earth from our ancestors but that we borrowed it from our children so let us not misuse the earth”, he concluded.

Mr. William Kodzo Amelorku, a representative of Cal Bank with the Environmental Risk Department revealed that as part of its effort to promote biological diversity, Cal bank in partnership with other banks and Switzerland Embassy has a product called Eco-fridge which the bank uses to give opportunities to customers to purchase environmentally friendly fridges at a discount of up to 45%.

The Strategic Youth Network for Development is a youth NGO dedicated to the fight against climate change.