The relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, electricity production and consumption in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between carbon dioxide, electricity production, and consumption in Ghana using the autoregressive distributed lag model by employing a time-series data spanning from 1971 to 2012. Evidence from the long-run elasticities shows that a 1% increase in the total energy production from combustible renewables and waste will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 307.9 kt in the long run. In contrast, a 1% increase in the total energy production with electricity production from hydroelectric sources will decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 267.3 kt in the long run. There was evidence of a bidirectional causality from electricity production from hydroelectric sources to carbon dioxide emissions and a unidirectional causality from carbon dioxide emissions to the total energy production with combustible renewables and waste; carbon dioxide emissions to electricity production from oil, gas, and coal sources; electric power consumption to the total energy production with combustible renewables; and waste and electricity production from hydroelectric sources to electricity production from oil, gas, and coal sources. Ghana’s electricity production and consumption from non-renewable sources of energy escalates carbon dioxide emissions while renewable sources help mitigate climate change and its impact.

KEYWORDS:

• Carbon dioxide emissions
• climate change
• econometrics
• electricity production
• Ghana