The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mohammed Adjei Sowah, has been named among the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Change Policy 2019”.

 The list which is the first of its kind has five other Africans on it and expected to be released annually.

 Notable personalities mentioned in the list include, Former Vice President of the United States of America, Al Gore, Senator Bernie Sanders (US Congress), Head of the Roman Catholic Church , Pope Francis, Former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, among others.

 The personalities  were selected  by Apolitical, a global peer-to-peer learning platform for government, after screening hundreds of nominations by public servants   around the world,  international organisations and non-governmental organisations including the OECD,UNDP, Harvard and  Oxford Universities , Bloomberg Philanthropies.

According to Apolitical the list highlights people who are currently making the biggest impact on climate change policy and whose works are indispensable to raising awareness and demanding change as well as   rising stars who are making their mark in local communities and are a driving force behind governmental progress. The research was conducted into every nominee and a shortlist was decided based on the following factors:

• Number of nominations received
• The power and potential to affect change at a local, national or international level, including by virtue of their position or mandate
• Past achievements that have affected change
• Feedback from expert nominators
• National and international perception of the nominee’s influence or potential to influence.
• Significant speaking engagements as an indicator of profile in the field. 

• Social media presence as an indication of their influence on debates around climate change

 In an interaction with journalists at the high level opening ceremony of the Africa Climate Week in Accra, Mayor Sowah reiterated that “climate change is real and every action we take contributes either positively or adversely to the climate."

He said Accra was focusing on greening and beautification of the city among others to address the issues of climate change.

The Mayor who is also a vice Chair of the C40 Steering Committee  said the city of Accra had engaged in energy-efficient projects, promoting effective waste management ,  waste segregation, recycling , tree planting and awareness creation among vulnerable communities as part of its efforts to address the issue. He added that, the city would embark on a tree planting exercise in the coming weeks.

He disclosed that, the city of Accra was committed to Deadline 2020 as part of its commitment to develop a Climate Action Plan for the city which would be compatible with the Paris Agreement.