As the month of April 2025 comes to an end, there is need to recall and reflect on messages from three of some of the world’s most significant annual global environmentally related observances namely: World Wetlands Day (February 2), World Water Day (March 22), and Earth Day (April 22).
They unfolded with a unifying message: the urgent need to restore natural ecosystems, combat climate change, and protect the life-supporting systems of the earth.
From wetlands conservation and water management to renewable energy advocacy, their 2025 themes reflect a growing global consensus that environmentally related actions are not just about saving nature, but about promoting human wellbeing and resilience for all.
Earth Day: Accelerating the Renewable Revolution
Earth Day 2025, the most recently observed of the Days, boldly called for a worldwide transition to clean, renewable energy by tripling global renewable electricity generation by 2030. With fossil fuel emissions driving the climate crisis, Earth Day activists urged leaders to prioritise solar, wind, hydroelectric, tidal and other sustainable energy sources.
The campaign also spotlighted environmental justice, demanding that no community be left behind in the global shift to a green economy.
Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Astrid Schomaker, used the occasion to remind the international community of how Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), including youth, women and children, have lived in harmony with Mother Earth for millennia.
She was concerned that “today they are among those most affected by the environmental crises afflicting the planet”.
Ms. Schomaker noted that the practices and innovations of IPLCs constitute a wealth of traditional knowledge that is crucial for global efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to address climate change. She continued that such role of IPLCs is recognized in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (the KMGBF), adopted at COP 15 in Montreal in December 2022.
The framework acknowledges “indigenous peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiversity and as partners in its conservation, restoration and sustainable use”.
Water Day: Preserve glaciers to secure global fresh water sources
World Water Day 2025 highlighted the critical role glaciers play in sustaining freshwater supplies for drinking, agriculture, industry, ecosystems and the global water system.
Glaciers are accumulated ice and snow that slowly flows from high elevated areas down mountainsides into valleys and across lands. Glaciers store almost 70% of Earth’s freshwater, acting as natural reservoirs that release meltwater essential for various human and ecological needs.
However, global warming has led to accelerated glacier melting with 2023 witnessing over 600 gigatons of water loss – the highest in the past 50 years, according to the Global Water Partnership. This rapid unprecedented melting is disrupting the water cycle, leading to more unpredictable and extreme weather patterns including increased incidences of floods, droughts, landslides and sea-level rise.
This, says UN-Water, “is endangering billions of people and countless ecosystems as well as threatening water security”. In Ghana and for the rest of the West African sub-region, the 2025 World Water Day served as reminder that although glaciers may be remote, they are an essential component of the water cycle, nourishing our rivers and lakes.
Therefore, their disappearance, also means less water for consumption by the population, less water for industrial development, a lower hydroelectric energy generation capacity, and less water for agriculture.
So, the national durbar to celebrate the Day in Accra, was an occasion to resound the call for all hands-on deck, to conserve Ghana’s water resources and ensure that every Ghanaian has access to this life-giving resource.
Reflecting over the Day’s national theme: “Water Conservation: Let’s Make It Our Way of Life”, Deputy Minister of Works, Housing, and Water Resources, Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, said “it is a wakeup call for all Ghanaians to intensify their commitment to reversing the deterioration of the country’s water bodies”.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Adam Mutawakilu, urged Ghanaians to renew their commitment to protect and conserve the nation’s fresh water resources.
“This is because of the reality that our water resources are not infinite, therefore, urgent action is required to ensure sustainability,” he stated.
Re-echoing similar sentiments, Acting Executive Director of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), Dr. Bob Alfa, was concerned that water availability for Ghanaians was way below the minimum annual requirement.
“Currently, the water resources per capita is about 1700 m3/cap/yr. This is well below the minimum threshold per capita of 1900 m3/cap/yr,” Dr. Alfa stated, adding that, “this is largely due to the combine effects of climate change and pollution resulting largely from illegal mining”.
Wetlands Day: Protecting wetlands for man’s sustainable welfare
The Day’s celebration underscored the importance of wetlands in maintaining ecological balance by supporting biodiversity, regulating water cycles, and mitigating climate change. Globally, wetlands are among the world’s most productive ecosystems, yet they are also among the most threatened.
So, for this year, the main campaign call is for bold action to safeguard these vital habitats for current and future generations.
In Ghana, the Wildlife Division (WD) of the Forestry Commission (FC) in collaboration with the Obane Community within the Songor Lagoon Ramsar Site in Ada, commemorated World Wetlands Day 2025 with a symbolic Mangrove planting and a durbar at the Dove Park, in Ada Foah.
An address read on behalf of the Acting Chief Executive of the FC, Dr Hugh Brown, said the Day’s celebration is a call for collective responsibility to conserve and restore wetlands to ensure a sustainable ecosystem for present and future generations.
On the state of Ghana’s wetlands, he said, “They are disappearing three times faster than forests. Hence, the need for all to actively participate in the conservation and restoration of Ghana’s wetlands ecosystems.”
What the trio celebrations means for Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa
The trio celebrations clearly depict the global community rallying around the themes of ecosystem restoration, water cooperation, and a shift to renewable energy in 2025, with sub-Saharan Africa and countries like Ghana in particular, standing at a critical crossroads.
The relevance of these themes goes beyond mere symbolism. They speak directly to the most pressing development and environmental challenges of countries like Ghana calling for urgent collective actions in ecosystem restoration in the face significant pressure from widespread degradation due to deforestation, agriculture, mining, infrastructural expansion and climate change.
This would involve an examination of provisions including those made for ecosystem restoration in the various urban planning and national development policies, and legal frameworks.
Where need be, the existing polices and framework, may have to be revised, amended or revoked. Also, with increasing pressure from climate change impacts, population growth, and urbanisation on freshwater supplies, the trio celebrations proposed proactive water management as imperative and critical measure.
This is not to safeguard public health, ensure food and energy security, protect the environment only, but also to prevent potential social conflicts. Also, it would strengthen their resilience, drive economic development, and honor the commitment to leaving no one behind in the pursuit of sustainable development.
On the subject of clean energy and in Ghana’s case, while, she has made strides with hydropower and solar initiatives, yet still, energy access remains unequal, particularly in rural areas. Hence, a significant part of the population remaining unreached.
But, under Ghana’s Renewable Energy Master Plan, huge potential exists for scaling up solar and mini-grid projects. Along with these opportunities, comes the urgent need to create green jobs in energy, conservation and climate adaptation, which is vital for the nation’s growing youth population.
Another crucial message can be seen in the push for Ghana and other sub-Saharan nations toward a model of development that is green, just, and inclusive. And to get there, countries need to strengthen the performance of systems and institutions put in place to administer the various sectors.
This should be supported by reinforced environmental governance and enforced regulations that protect biodiversity.Local communities should be appropriately empowered with tools and knowledge to adapt to climate change.
Regional and national structures should be revitalised to champion climate finance access that would enable Africa to lead in solutions and not keep suffering consequences.
By Ama Kudom-Agyemang