Search

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis postulates an inverted U-shaped relationship between different pollutants and economic growth. In Ghana, as in many other developing countries, there exist scanty studies that confirm or otherwise the EKC hypothesis with regards to CO2 emissions as well as the factors that drive CO2 emissions. This work aims to bridge this knowledge gap by addressing these two major questions using data from 1970 to 2010 and the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Testing approach. The results rather suggest a U-shaped relationship between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions per capita indicating the non-existence of the EKC hypothesis for CO2 in Ghana. This implies that further increase in per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will only be associated with increase in CO2 emissions as the income per capita turning point of about $624 at constant 2000 prices occurred between 1996 and 1997. Furthermore, our results reveal energy consumption and trade openness are positive long run drivers of CO2 emissions. It is therefore recommended that the enhancement of trade liberalization policies should ensure the use of cleaner technologies and products while investment in cleaner energy alternatives could help reduce CO2 emissions. We also recommend the implementation of the Low Carbon Development Strategy which integrates development and climate change mitigation actions.

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]

There is evidence in the literature that there exist gender-related differences in household energy choices. However, most of these studies have assumed the homogenous slope hypothesis a priori, which could affect the results if a formal test rejects the homogenous slope hypothesis. The Exogenous Switching Treatment Effect (ESTER) is used to ascertain the gender effects in household energy choice in Ghana. In comparison with the pooled regression method, ESTER relaxes the assumption of the same effect of covariates on male-headed households (MHHs) and female-headed households (FHHs). The results indicate that if FHHs characteristics were similar to those of MHHs, their probability of choosing cleaner energy would be higher. Our results suggest that supporting the heads in FHHs to have access to more economic opportunities as males tend to will potentially lead to positive effects on their probability of choosing clean energy. Our results give support to policies that strongly favor female education without disadvantaging male education. [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]