Climate Change and Its Effect on Agricultural Employment in Ghana

Trade unions could play a key role in minimizing the effect of climate change on smallholder farmers in the informal sector. Climate change makes agricultural employment increasingly precarious and therefore adds a new dimension to the activities and risks against which trade unions must seek to protect their members. This is even more so in the context that developing countries who have contributed the least to the problem of increasing alteration of weather patterns and the environment will suffer the worst impacts. Agriculture in particular will be affected, with potentially serious implications for food security, poverty and employment. This is likely to open space and relevance for Trade Unions; but how they will stand up to these new challenges and opportunities remain to be seen.