Transition to cleaner cooking energy in Ghana

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal 7 and other related goals hinges on increased access to clean energy alternatives for all people irrespective of where they live. However, most developing countries including Ghana still rely largely on traditional biomass as the main source of household energy as a result of a myriad of challenges. From the foregoing, the present study uses the Ghana Living Standard Survey 7 (GLSS 7) household data and the multinomial logit regression model to analyse the factors that determine the transition to cleaner cooking energy in Ghana. The analysis shows that the main determinants of household energy choice in Ghana are education, household dwelling type, household size, employment and income group. Whereas education, modern housing, paid employment and higher income increase the adoption of cleaner energy, a higher dependency ratio and employment in the informal sector increase the likelihood of using unclean energy. Increased access to education and the adoption of policies to improve housing conditions, employment and incomes are recommended to encourage the adoption of cleaner energy alternatives.