Ghana

According to the Ghana Consumer Segmentation report (see related resources below), two-fifths of urban households still use charcoal as their primary cooking fuel.

Related Resources

Ghana Consumer Segmentation

Unlocking LPG Finance for Clean Cooking in Nigeria and Ghana

Nationally Determined Contributions

The Ghanaian NDC outlines a mitigation policy to expand the adoption of market-based cleaner cooking solutions. This policy aims to scale up the adoption of LPG use from 5.5% to 50% in peri-urban and rural households by 2030, as well as increase access and adoption of 2 million efficient cookstoves by the same year. The government also aims to promote modern cooking technologies such as cooking gas. However, despite these objectives to promote clean cookstoves, the mitigation action is unconditional due to a lack of cohesive national policy, strategy, and coordination framework for the cookstoves sector, compounded by inadequate regulation in the cooking sector. The policy on subsidies for LPGs acknowledges a lack of incentives to promote the cooking sector, such as import duties and taxes on technologies and regulation of raw material inputs like scrap metal. Consequently, without any obligations for households to use improved cookstoves or LPGs, there is no guarantee that the objectives will be achieved. However, the PoA could create an enabling environment for these objectives to be accomplished.

Other Relevant Policies

Ghana had a subsidy for LPG from 1990, which was removed in 2013. Whilst the subsidy was operating, the share of primary LPG users increased from 6% (2000) to 19% (2013) and 26% (2018). The impact of the removal of the subsidy was a net price increase of 50% for LPG and an increase of 20% for diesel. In rural areas, the use of firewood for cooking increased by up to 3%. In urban areas, the use of charcoal for cooking increased by up to 15%. (Source: The Role of Taxes and Subsidies in the Clean Cooking Transition, Das et al, 2022).

The Ghana Government is implementing the Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP). The plan runs from 2019 to 2030, and it intends to promote the development of local renewable energy resources for sustainable economic growth, to contribute to improved social outcomes, and to reduce adverse climate change effects.

REMP aims to increase the use of renewable energy in Ghana from 2019 to 2030 by:

1. Increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the national energy generation mix from 42.5 MW in 2015 to 1,363.6 MW (with grid-connected systems totalling 1,094.6 MW)
2. Reducing the dependence on biomass as the main fuel for thermal energy applications
3. Providing renewable energy-based decentralized electrification options in 1,000 off-grid communities
4. Promoting local content and local participation in the renewable energy industry