Hi John,

I am Portia Adu-Mensah, director of the group 350 Ghana Reduce our Carbon,
also known as 350 GROC. Our story started with a group of seven people and
one target: a coal power plant. And our climate movement in Ghana has
grown into a beautiful network of over 150 members fighting for renewable
energy solutions!

We started in 2013, after a massive training event that 350.org organized
in Turkiye – the Global PowerShift. It was a crucial moment for the
climate movement, when we needed new energy and – above all – new global
connections. Around 500 people from more than 130 countries came together
during a week of meetings and relationship building.

As several other new young climate leaders around the world, I came back
home with my friends full of ideas and passionate to make change. We
started 350 GROC to oppose Ghana's plans to build the Ekumfi Aboano power
plant – a 700-megawatt (MW) project that would burn 2 million tons of coal
per year and impact the health and livelihoods of thousands of people. We
mobilized, protested, and talked to affected communities. And after three
years of campaigning, we won! The project was cancelled, once and for all.

But that was just the start. We kept fighting against fossil fuels in
Ghana for many years. Our group got bigger, with almost 150 volunteers
from different backgrounds joining – scientists, grassroots community
leaders, lawyers, journalists, students. And we realized they had to go
beyond. After we stopped the establishment of coal in Ghana, we had to
fight for an alternative. In 2021, 350 GROC started the campaign
"Renewable Energy for Communities" (RE4C).

When we started, we were focusing on the national policy level. But we
realized that it wouldn't solve everything and we had to also campaign
locally. Communities were the most impacted, and they need to have agency.
RE4C was created with a multi-level approach, including lobbying for
bolder national policies for renewable energy and advocacy for the
implementation of local solutions.

In the last years, RE4C has trained 100 women on clean cooking, promoted
several assemblies to introduce renewable energy alternatives and put on
communities' hands the decision about how to promote and use those, sent
recommendations to the national Energy Commission on how to improve the
country's Renewable Energy Act, and much more.

[ [link removed] ]Event as part of the 'Women in Renewable Energy' campaign in 2022Event
as part of the "Women in Renewable Energy" campaign in 2022

Our immediate goal is to make sure that Ghana's government sticks to their
promise of having at least 10% of renewables in the energy mix by 2030
(it's only at 3% now) – by increasing local, decentralized solar and wind
projects and promoting the integration of renewable energy in district
development policies. And we have ambitious plans! In 2023, 350 GROC wants
to:

* Create national momentum and push for a more ambitious Renewable
Energy Masterplan
* Expand the "Women in Renewable Energy" project to other regions of the
country, and deepen the engagement of the 100 women already trained
* Fund renewable energy projects in schools, enabling young people to
create African solutions to the climate crisis
* Develop a Renewable Energy Training Manual, with accessible language
to empower communities to identify the solutions available to them

But if we're going to make these plans happen, we need help! 350.org
supports groups as 350 GROC in many ways – with direct funding or
identifying other funding opportunities; with communications, organizing
and campaigning training; with building coalitions and connecting groups
working in the same regions or around the same topics; with logistical and
technical structures.



You can [ [link removed] ]donate directly to GROC on our crowdfunding page. And you can
[ [link removed] ]donate to 350.org, to help support groups like this around the world!

[ [link removed] ]CONTRIBUTE
$3.50



Join us for a just transition to renewable energy!

Onwards,

Portia Adu-Mensah
Director
350 Ghana Reduce our Carbon




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