Towards the attainment of sustainable development goal 7: what determines clean energy accessibility in sub-Saharan Africa?

Abstract

<abstract> <p>Access to clean energy is necessary for environmental cleanliness and poverty reduction. That notwithstanding, many in developing countries especially those in sub-Saharan Africa region lack clean energy for their routine domestic activities. This study sought to unravel the factors that influence clean energy accessibility in sub-Saharan Africa region. Clean energy accessibility, specifically access to electricity, and access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, were modeled as a function of income, foreign direct investment, inflation, employment and political regime for a panel of 31 sub-Saharan countries for the period 2000–2015. Regression analysis from fixed effect, random effect and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares show that access to clean energy is influenced positively by income, foreign direct investment, political regime and employment while inflation has some negative effect on its accessibility. The policy implications from the findings among other things include that expansion in GDP per capita in the sub-region shall be helpful in increasing accessibility to clean energy. Moreover, strengthening the democratic institutions of countries in the region shall enhance the citizens' accessibility to clean energy. Ensuring sustainable jobs for the citizens is necessary for access clean energy.</p> </abstract>

Determinants of access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking in Africa: A panel autoregressive distributed lag approach

“…This implies that populations with higher disposable income have greater access to clean fuels and technologies, in the long run, as this can enable their energy transitions from dirty to clean fuels over time. Kwakwa et al 8 posit that increasing GDP per capita in Africa has the potential to increase access to clean energy. Growth in GDP is also expected to improve energy intensity of nations, as they transition to the use of more efficient fuels and technologies.…”

“…5 Although carbon emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain low relative to the global south, there has been a steady rise in carbon emissions from an estimated 9.2 to 33.8 million ktons covering the period 1960-2016. 7 An estimated 3 billion individuals globally rely on biomass fuels for heating and cooking, [8][9][10][11] with 720 million recorded in SSA. 8,12 Approximately 600 million individuals do not have access to electricity, complemented by 900 million who cook with traditional fuels, and thus do not have access to clean fuels.…”

“…7 An estimated 3 billion individuals globally rely on biomass fuels for heating and cooking, [8][9][10][11] with 720 million recorded in SSA. 8,12 Approximately 600 million individuals do not have access to electricity, complemented by 900 million who cook with traditional fuels, and thus do not have access to clean fuels. 13 Forecast shows that half (50%) of the global population who will not get access to clean cooking fuels will stem from Africa.…”

“…However, few studies have investigated the link between fuels choices for cooking and economic development. [53][54][55][56] Kwakwa et al 8 appear to be the closest in assessing factors that influence access to clean energy covering 31 SSA where they modeled access to clean cooking fuels and technologies as a function of FDI, income, political regime, employment, and inflation for the period spanning 15 years (2000-2015).…”

Renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana: the effect of financial strength of listed financial institutions

“…Over the past few years, energy use and environmental quality researchers have aimed at ensuring the use of more green and efficient energy sources, given their less destructive effects on the environment (Kwakwa, 2021). Consequently, there has been an insistence on the use of more renewable energy sources globally.…”