Energy Minister touts Ghana’s committed efforts on decarbonization and energy efficiency at Africa climate summit

The energy minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has said Ghana remains committed to reducing carbon emissions under its commitment to the the global climate agenda.

He said these efforts are within the broader context of Ghana’s blue-print towards achieving net zero.

Dr. Prempeh made this assertion whilst contributing to a panel discussion on the main stage and margins of the 2023 Africa Climate Summit held on Monday, September 4, 2023, in Nairobi Kenya.

Touching on the role of energy efficiency in Africa for the development of affordable, clean energy systems for the future, the Minister who is also a Member of Parliament for Manhyia South highlighted Ghana’s prioritization of energy efficiency which dates back to 2005.

“This is when we launched the appliance standards and labeling regime to date where we have passed legislations to back same,” he said.

The Minister indicated that the lighting retrofit led to savings of 124MW with 6000 CFLS deployed to replace 6000 incandescent lamps.

He said the implementation of standards and labelling for cooling appliances in Ghana from 2010-2020 yielded 10,159 GWh (10.16 TWh) of electricity savings nationally.

He stressed that carbon dioxide emissions were also reduced by 6.32 million tonnes within the same period.

“This is a major improvement in Ghana’s carbon footprint fulfilling SDG 7(affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy) and SDG13 (climate action)} and thereby making the future net-zero pathway a reality”, he said.

Dr. Prempeh also mentioned that currently, 63% of the population have access to clean cooking with 35% being LPG access, 27% improved biomass cookstoves and 1% representing electric cooking.

Government has supported the distribution of over 1.5 million improved biomass cookstoves since 2021 and currently supporting the distribution of another 500,000-biomass improved cookstoves” he said.

He added that government policies and interventions have positively impacted the clean cooking market, keeping it on track for investments, scaling up, and commercialization.

The sector he reiterated has gained attention and attracted key global players due to the new vision of the Ministry of Energy anchored on the government’s commitment to achieve SDG 7, and the quest to transition the energy sector to net zero.

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