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)

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