Cooking on firewood and coal increases air pollution and ill health. Some of the dangers include stunted growth in children and undernutrition in children and adults. Babies who've been exposed to charcoal and firewood smoke while in the womb can have reduced birth weight.
In Ghana, it's mostly women who have the task of preparing household meals. Babies are often carried on women's backs while they cook, and children play close to charcoal or wood fires. This exposes women and children to the indoor air pollution resulting from burning biomass fuel.
We are economists who investigated whether environmental consciousness had an influence on Ghanaian people's choice of cooking fuel. We surveyed 1,200 people from six regions in Ghana - the Greater Accra, Eastern, Bono, Bono East, Northern, and Savannah regions.
Our research found that households that were aware of climate change and other global environmental issues were more likely to make cleaner cooking fuel choices.
Awareness of environmental issues has a positive impact on clean cooking fuel use and therefore reduces energy poverty. Energy poverty has been described as lack of access to modern energy sources which are cleaner and less polluting, like liquefied petroleum gas and electricity.
Environmental awareness alone cannot eradicate energy poverty, which is also caused by low incomes. But our research highlights ways to reduce energy poverty through environmental awareness. We recommend that the government of Ghana and environmental organisations start a nationwide awareness campaign. This will make people more conscious of the environment, reduce energy poverty, and accelerate the transition to cleaner cooking energy.
Environmental awareness and cooking fuels
People are said to be energy poor if they lack access to modern and cleaner sources of energy. This may be the result of economic, social, behavioural or even cultural factors.
However, people who are aware of greenhouse gases, global warming and climate change know that trees help absorb carbon dioxide emissions and reduce global warming. Since traditional fuels mainly come from wood resources, we wanted to find out whether people in Ghana who were environmentally conscious would choose energy sources other than wood.
Read more: Renewable energy projects in rural Ghana have some built-in limitations
Our study constructed an index of environmental consciousness. We asked the people we surveyed if they knew about global environmental issues such as climate change, greenhouse gases, global warming and the annual Conference of the Parties climate summit.
We asked if households were aware of local and community level environmental regulations and by-laws. We also asked if people knew about the impact of "galamsey" - illegal small-scale gold mining. This approach to gold mining is associated with several environmental problems. One is the muddying of freshwater resources which are treated by the Ghana Water Company for onward distribution to people as potable water.
We used quantitative methods to estimate the effect of having environmental consciousness on the choice of cooking energy. In doing so, we took into account other factors that might cause people to choose the types of energy sources they use. These factors include incomes, levels of education attained, the features of the places where they live, and their ability to access information generally.
Read more: LPG versus dirty fuel use in Ghana: bring gas supplies closer to people and more of them will use it
All these factors might influence a household's choice of energy. However, our focus was to understand the role environmental awareness plays in influencing a decision to make cleaner energy choices.
We made sure that we could isolate and observe what energy choices people make when their incomes, education and other factors stay the same and only their level of environmental consciousness changes.
Choosing clean fuel
We found that an increase (by one) in a household's score of environmental consciousness led to a 13.4% increase in the probability of choosing clean fuel. This means that when people are aware of greenhouse gases, global warming and climate change, they are more likely to opt for green energy. They make energy decisions that promote the sustainability of the natural environment.
These findings matter because the environmental costs to society and the health costs to households from using heavily polluting fuels are significant.
Our findings are critical in pursuing the clean energy transition agenda. Switching to clean energy will promote environmental sustainability and improve health outcomes in Ghana.
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Raising awareness in Ghana
A nationwide campaign in Ghana on the causes and consequences of global warming and climate change is crucial. Educating people about these issues will go a long way in influencing people's choices. Awareness will contribute towards the transition to clean energy.
Ghana's National Council for Curriculum and Assessment should update the formal school curriculum to include these environmental issues. This will allow children to start learning about the environment and clean energy while still at school.
Public campaigns at a community level will also be useful. Ghana's National Commission for Civic Education, the Information Services Division and allied bodies could lead this public campaign. Altogether, greater awareness can motivate better energy choices.
Kwame Adjei-Mantey, Economist, University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ghana; Research Fellow, Future Africa Institute, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria
Roula Inglesi-Lotz, Professor of Economics, University of Pretoria
