Abstract

Many African countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), have high vulnerability to climate change and energy insecurity; and are saddled with a variety of environmental and climate-related challenges, from droughts to loss of biodiversity. Rising global temperatures have already increased the frequency of floods, wildfires, droughts, and heatwaves around the world. As a corollary of this, the centrality of a stable climatic environment to their development cannot be overstated. Hence, the need for transition to a low carbon economy appears to transcend the global clarion call to assume some moral obligations or stewardship role for our environment. Ghana was at the table of the coalition of the willing in Paris in 2015 and well represented again at COP 26 in Glasgow. Ghana places the provisions within the Renewable Energy Act (Act 832) and the National Energy Policy 2010 at the heart of the implementation of the NDCs programmes, which commits it to a GHG emission reduction goal of 15% by 2030. Achieving this aim requires nothing short of a total transformation of the energy systems that underpin its economy. This paper examines the structure and functioning of the critical institutions which govern and regulate the energy sector in Ghana. It argues that Ghana faces enormous legal, policy and regulatory challenges in its approach to the governance of the energy sector. In the absence of a radical change, its pathway to decarbonisation and subsequent transition to a low carbon energy system remains a pipe dream.

This paper will be part of the OGEL Special Issue on "Carbon-neutral Energy". More information here https://www.ogel.org/news.asp?key=688