Determinants of urban household choice of cooking fuel in Ghana: Do socioeconomic and demographic factors matter?

Abstract

A greater proportion of Ghana's charcoal, which contributes to deforestation, is consume by urban households. To help inform interventions on clean cooking fuel use, this study explored the influence of socioeconomic and demographic factors on urban household choice of cooking fuel (clean vs. unclean) in Ghana, using the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, a national representative survey data. The factors explored were sex of household head (HH), age of HH, marital status of HH, household size, educational level of HH and household wealth. Data were analysed through simple percentages, chi-square test and binary logistic regression. A statistically significant association was found between all six socioeconomic and demographic factors, and urban household choice of cooking fuel. However, from the odds ratios, we identified household wealth as the main determinant of urban household choice of clean cooking fuel because clean cooking fuel and equipment are expensive compared to unclean cooking fuel. We recommend that interventions aimed at scaling up urban households use of clean cooking fuel in Ghana and similar environments should include price reduction and/or subsidization of clean cooking fuel and equipment as well as economic empowerment of poor households.