Climate action must put people’s pockets first – Expert says

Ms Valerie Kplorm Nutakor, Country Programme Coordinator of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), has called for climate action to be grounded in people's everyday lives and immediate realities. During the WaterAid and JoyNews National Dialogue, she argued that climate change should be framed as a development issue rather than an isolated environmental campaign.

Ms Nutakor emphasized the importance of connecting sustainable practices to the personal and community benefits they can provide. She illustrated this point with her own childhood experience of waste management, where her family recycled plastic sachets because they could earn money from selling them. This experience demonstrated how environmentally responsible behavior could be adopted without detailed knowledge of climate science.

Ms Nutakor explained that climate change could raise the cost of development by reducing infrastructure lifespan and creating additional expenses. She emphasized that climate action needed to be relevant to daily decisions, using farming as an example. Farmers prioritize crop growth and income generation, so climate-smart practices must demonstrate their economic benefits.

Similarly, alternative transport technologies were more popular when they were seen as cost-effective, rather than just environmentally friendly. Ms Nutakor stressed the need for policymakers to consider economic incentives and practical conditions when encouraging people to adopt climate-friendly practices.