Power generation in Ghana has gone through a number of phases: starting with diesel generators and stand-alone electricity supply systems owned by industrial mines and factories, to the hydro phase following the construction of the Akosombo dam, and now to a thermal complement phase powered by gas and/or light crude oil. A power crisis has also become a perennial development challenge in Ghana, with increasing severity that threatens the country's economic growth and transformation. The troubling rationing system, the slowdown in industrial activity, job and income losses, and disruptions in social life are telling reminders of what now seems a perennial drag on Ghana's development agenda. While Ghana has committed itself to universal electricity access by 2020, the real challenge is the capacity to meet this goal and, most important, to ensure that supply is reliable and adequate. This paper outlines the state of current electricity demand and supply gap and the major impediments to resolving the supply bottlenecks and in managing demand, highlights institutional and regulatory constraints, and identifies some key issues that should be the focus of policy decision-making going forward.
This paper investigates the macroeconomic determinants of crude oil demand (consumption) in Ghana with annual data from 1980 to 2013. The study applied the vector error correction model (VECM) to estimate the long-run and short-run determinants of crude oil demand in Ghana within the study period. The long run estimates reveal that price of crude oil, real GDP per capita, real effective exchange rate, and energy saving technical progress are significant long run determinants of crude oil demand. The results also indicate that crude oil demand in Ghana is income and price inelastic. Crude oil price has a positive long run effect indicating the virtual lack of substitutes and overdependence on crude oil for energy generation and economic activities in Ghana. Based on the variance decomposition and impulse response analyses, the study also found that positive shocks from real effective exchange rate had a dominant and positive impact on crude oil demand in Ghana. We suggest among others that Ghana vigorously explore alternative and sustainable and energy sources to curtail the overdependence on crude oil, strategically hedge against volatilities in the exchange rate market, and revive the country's oil refinery to refine her own crude oil to reduce importation.
The study analysed the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in Ghana, specifically by analysing Ghana's decoupling status from 1990 to 2018. The Tapio elasticity method and the logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition technique were used in the study to find out what causes CO2 emissions in Ghana to change over time. The analysis revealed that CO2 emissions and economic growth have increased over the study period, with economic growth driven mostly by the services and industrial sectors in the last decade. The decoupling index analysis shows that weak decoupling status dominated the period 1990–2018, interspersed with strong decoupling and expansive negative decoupling status. Economic structure and energy intensity, instead, were found to promote the decoupling of CO2 emissions and economic growth. From the decomposition analysis, CO2 emissions in Ghana are driven on the average by economic activities, emission factors, and population growth. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 13, the study suggests that policies to cut CO2 emissions should focus on economic activities, factors that affect emissions, and population growth. Also, to decouple CO2 emissions from economic growth, the implementation of policies that change the structure of the economy and energy intensity towards renewable sources should be intensified in Ghana.
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.
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