Drivers of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions in Ghana: A Comparative Analysis on Consumption of Energy by the Industry, Agriculture, Residential and the Transport Sector (2000-2018)

doi:10.7176/jetp/11-5-01

Abstract

The recent historical increases in energy-related CO2 emissions globally have put the Ghana’s transport, industry, residential and agriculture sector in the spotlight, courtesy of the signiﬁcantly high pollutant emissions from these sectors. Taking a cue from this, this paper investigates into the drivers of carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana by examining the consumption of energy by the industry, agriculture, residential and the transport sector. In doing so, this study employs the Regression model as a statistical method to examine the relations between dependent variable (carbon dioxide emissions) and the four variables of interest (energy consumption by the industry, agriculture, residential and the transport sector). Decomposition Model was applied to identify the driving forces of the emission or resource utilization. From the analysis, the transport sector contributes to more release of carbon dioxide emissions (over 78%) as compared to the other sectors. This was highly driven partly by economic affluence and population. However, technological advancement played a major role in slowing the growth of Domestic Material Consumption (DMC). Among the drivers of DMC increase, the role of population was relatively less yet very significant as compared to affluence, highlighting large resource consumption due to expanding urban and social lifestyles. In general, this current study offers policy insights for the transportation, agriculture, residential and industry sectors of Ghana and other similar economies that replicate the same condition. Keywords: Carbon dioxide, energy consumption, decomposition analysis, regression analysis, Ghana. DOI: 10.7176/JETP/11-5-01 Publication date: October 31 st 2021

Highlights

From a global point of view, the exponential increased in population and the desire of people to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle has necessitated the demand of energy consumption
Ghana’s energy sector has evolved over the last two decades. This is due to continuous reforms and stability that allowed for increased investment by private players especially in the electricity sub-sector
The country started oil production in 2010 with only one field, but can boast of a total of three oil producing fields namely; Jubilee, Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme (TEN) and OCTP Sankofa Gye Nyame [10].The final energy consumed by the transport sector on the other hand increased from 1,169 Ktoe in 2000, representing 21.0% of the total energy consumed to 2,952 Ktoe in 2019, representing

Summary

Introduction

From a global point of view, the exponential increased in population and the desire of people to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle has necessitated the demand of energy consumption. Www.iiste.org dioxide emission is the principal GHG and a major cause for climate change and global warming [4] The increasing rate of population growth and rapid urbanization growth in Ghana calls for increasing demand of energy for consumption. [11],employs the PMD panel and ADRL approach to examine the causal link of economic growth, energy consumption (Fossil fuel), carbon emission and oil price for African countries. In another study of Greece for time period 1977–2007 unidirectional causalities were found running from economic growth to energy consumption and from economic growth to carbon emissions while investigating the relationship between energy use, GDP and CO2 emissions [16]. This can help decision makers to formulate more effective policies to reduce the emission and impact of CO2 on public health and the environment

Materials and Methods

Decomposition Approach and Analysis on the driving forces

Results and discussion

Results based on IPAT decomposition model