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Cooking, an important household activity is often done using heavy polluting fuels by a majority of households in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). In this study, we examine how the choice of cooking fuel affects women empowerment using nationwide household level data from Ghana. We examine whether fuel choices could lead to women's social and economic empowerment. By employing the Survey-based Women Empowerment Index (SWPER) and Principal Component Analysis to construct comprehensive indices of women empowerment, we find that using clean cooking fuel has significant positive associations with women empowerment across all domains and could consequently help reduce inequality to the advantage of women. Other socioeconomic factors such as household size and wealth were found to significantly determine women empowerment status. Both clean cooking fuel use and the reduction of social and economic inequalities are important targets to be met under the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa continues to suffer from the effects of climate change in many ways. Records show that the continent's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have seen tremendous upward adjustments over the past decades. While international tourism and renewable energy have been touted as sources of reducing CO2 emissions, the empirical evidence has been mixed, and it is also unclear how exchange rates moderate the effect of tourism on CO2 emissions. With the recent pace of tourism and renewable energy development, as well as exchange rate fluctuations in Africa, the study assesses the impact of international tourism, exchange rate, and renewable energy on CO2 emissions of seven most visited countries in Africa. Carbon dioxide emission was modelled within the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Regression analyses were performed using the quantile regression and fully modified OLS. Regression analysis from the fully modified OLS method shows that the EKC hypothesis holds for the selected countries; renewable energy and international tourism reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and exchange rate interacts with international tourism to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The quantile regression shows variations in the impacts across the various quantiles. Countries in this study can rely on economic expansion, international tourism, and renewable energy to curb carbon dioxide emissions. It is recommended, among other things, that there should be the development of additional tourism locations and renewable energy adoption be scaled up as a means of reducing heavy polluting energy sources to reduce emissions emanating from the energy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crucial role of electricity in prosecuting the development agenda of economies is widely known. Yet some key variables are lacking in the assessment of electricity demand determinants. One such variable is power crises. This study re-visits the discussion by investigating the role of power crises on electricity demand. We employ data from 1980 to 2018 to examine how power crises in general and in particular the 2012–2015 severe power crisis in Ghana impacts electricity consumption. Using various econometric techniques, we find that power crises have adverse effects on electricity demand in the long run. The 2012–2015 episode of power crisis in particular, has potentially led to consumers reconsidering their sources of energy by reducing electricity demand in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]