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Climate Change and Clean Energy Generation in Ghana: Reflecting on the Regulatory and Investment Frameworks

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Democratic Governance, Law, and Development in Africa

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Abstract

Article 36(9) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution obliges the country to protect and safeguard its environment for posterity, and also cooperate with other countries and bodies to protect the international environment to benefit humankind. Ghana continues to face the adverse effects of climate change because of the country’s inability to undertake adaptive measures to address environmental problems and socio-economic costs of climate change. Using doctrinal and interdisciplinary legal research approaches, this chapter discusses Ghana’s legal framework in its power sector in relation to investment in clean energy infrastructure. It argues that the legal regime in Ghana’s energy sector must concentrate on responsible and sustainable investment in the development and maintenance of clean energy infrastructure to avert the adverse effects of power crisis and climate change.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Conference of the Parties, ‘United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Report of the Conference of the Parties on Its Thirteenth Session, held in Bali from 3 to 15 December 2007 Addendum—Part 2: Action Taken by the Conference of the Parties at Its Thirteenth Session’.

  2. 2.

    Michael Addaney, ‘The Clean Development Mechanism and Environmental Protection in Rapidly Developing Countries: Comparative Perspectives and Lessons from China and India’ [2018] Tsinghua China Law Review 297.

  3. 3.

    Ibid 299.

  4. 4.

    Stern, N. H. and Treasury Great Britain, ‘The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review’ [2007] Cambridge University Press.

  5. 5.

    Ibid.

  6. 6.

    F Shadman, S Sadeghipour, M Moghavvemi, R Saidur, ‘Drought and Energy Security in Key ASEAN Countries’ (2016) 53 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50.

  7. 7.

    ibid.

  8. 8.

    Erkki J Hollo (Ed), Climate Change and the Law (Springer 2013) 2.

  9. 9.

    UNFCCC, ‘Climate Change: Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Adaptation in Developing Countries’ https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/publications/impacts.pdf, accessed 23 July 2019.

  10. 10.

    Addaney (n 2).

  11. 11.

    Sylvester Afram Boadi and Kwadwo Owusu, ‘Impact of Climate Change and Variability on Hydropower in Ghana’ (2019) 38 African Geographical Review 19.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    ‘Energy Crisis’ (Collins Dictionary) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.collinsdictionary.com/amp/english/energy-crisis, accessed 6 January 2021.

  14. 14.

    ibid.

  15. 15.

    Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), ‘Ghana National Climate Change Policy’  https://www.un-page.org/files/public/ghanaclimatechangepolicy.pdf,  accessed 1 April 2021.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    Felix Asante and Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah, ‘Climate Change and Variability in Ghana: Stocktaking’ (2014) 3 Climate 78.

  18. 18.

    Blimpo MP and Cosgrove-Davies M, ‘Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa’ (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank 2019).

  19. 19.

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  20. 20.

    Africa Progress Panel, Power People Planet Seizing Africa’s Energy and Climate Opportunities: Africa Progress Report 2015 (Africa Progress Panel 2015).

  21. 21.

    International Monetary Fund, ‘Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa’ https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2008/AFR/eng/sreo0408.pdf, accessed 16 August 2020.

  22. 22.

    Ibid (n 28).

  23. 23.

    Schoeman L, ‘Top 10 Countries That Have Experienced and Continue to Experienced Crippling Load Shedding’ (Power Plant, 15 May 2015) http://www.powerplanet.co.za/blog/top-10-countries-that-have-experienced-and-continue-to-experience-crippling-load-shedding, accessed 1 March 2018; Paul Nduhuura e’tal, ‘Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Electricity Load Shedding Experiences: A Case Study of Communities in Accra, Ghana (2020) Energies.

  24. 24.

    Kapika J and Eberhard A, Power-Sector Reform and Regulation in Africa: Lessons from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia and Ghana (HSRC Press 2013).

  25. 25.

    Kwakwa PA, ‘Energy-Growth Nexus and Energy Demand in Ghana: A Review of Empirical Studies’ (2014) 1 Applied Research Journal 28.

  26. 26.

    Ishmael Edjekumhene, Martin Bawa Amadu, Abeeku Brew-Hammond, ‘Power Sector Reform in Ghana: The Untold Story’ http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/powerpolitics_ghana.pdf, accessed 13 June 2016.

  27. 27.

    Schoeman (n 23).

  28. 28.

    Jessica A. Bohlmann, Heinrich R. Bohlman, Roula Inglesi-Lotz, ‘An Economy-Wide Evaluation of New Power Generation in South Africa: The Case of Kusile and Medupi’ (2015) University of Pretoria Working Paper: 2015–40 http://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/61/WP/wp_2015_40.zp58417.pdf. Accessed 23 June 2019.

  29. 29.

    Kapika and Eberhard (n 27).

  30. 30.

    International Monetary Fund (n 24).

  31. 31.

    Ibid.

  32. 32.

    Ministry of Energy (Ghana), ‘Energy Sector Strategy and Development Plan 2010’ http://ghanaoilwatch.org/images/laws/energy_strategy.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2019.

  33. 33.

    ‘What is UNFCCC’ (Emory University) https://climatetalks.emorydomains.org/what-is-unfccc/, accessed 6 January 2021.

  34. 34.

    K Olsen, ‘The Clean Development Mechanism’s Contributions to Sustainable Development: A Review of the Literature’ 66.

  35. 35.

    Sani Damamisau Mohammed ‘Clean Development Mechanism and carbon emissions in Nigeria’ (2019) Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal volume 11 issue 3.

  36. 36.

    Romeo Pacudan ‘The Clean Development Mechanism: New Instrument in Financing Renewable Energy Technologies’ in Aldo Iacomelli (ed) Renewable Energies for Central Asia Countries: Economic, Environmental and Social Impacts (Springer 2004).

  37. 37.

    Lavanya Rajamani, ‘The 2015 Paris Agreement: Interplay Between Hard, Soft and Non-Obligations: Table 1’ (2016) 28 Journal of Environmental Law 337.

  38. 38.

    ‘The Paris Agreement’ https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement, accessed 6 January 2021.

  39. 39.

    Pacudan (36).

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Abbe E.L Brown (Ed.), ‘Introduction’, Environmental Technologies, Intellectual Property and Climate Change (Elgar Law, Technology and Society 2013), 11.

  42. 42.

    Sören Noack ‘The Clean Development Mechanism Worldwide and in Brazil’ in Schmidt M., Onyango V., Palekhov D. (eds) Implementing Environmental and Resource Management (Springer 2011) pp 69–78.

  43. 43.

    UNFCC Secretariat, ‘CER Demand, CDM Outlook and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement’ https://unfccc.int/files/na/application/pdf/04_current_cer_demand_cdm_and_art__6_of_the_pa_nm.pdf, accessed 23 July 2019.

  44. 44.

    Olsen (n 34).

  45. 45.

    D. Das, P. P. Sengupta, ‘Social Cost of Environmental Pollution and Application of Counter Measures through Clean Development Mechanism: In the Context of Developing Countries’ [2011] Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 833.

  46. 46.

    ‘Strategic National Energy Plan 2006–2020’ (Energy Commission (Ghana) 2006) Main Report.

  47. 47.

    Anita M. Halvorssen, ‘The Kyoto Protocol and Developing Countries - The Clean Development Mechanism’ (2005) 16:2 Colo. J. Int’l Envtl. L. & Pol’y 353.

  48. 48.

    Sani Damamisau Mohammed ‘Clean Development Mechanism and carbon emissions in Nigeria’ (2019) Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal volume 11 issue 3.

  49. 49.

    ‘CDM Projects by host region’ (UNEP DTU Partnership Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development 2020)  http://www.cdmpipeline.org/cdm-projects-region.htm,  accessed 6 January 2021.

  50. 50.

    Damilola S. Olawuyi, ‘Achieving Sustainable Development in Africa through the Clean Development Mechanism: Legal and Institutional Issues Considered’ (2009) 17 AFR. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 270.

  51. 51.

    Asian Development Bank, ‘From Kyoto to Paris Transitioning the Clean Development Mechanism’ (2021) viii   http://www.adb.org/publications/Kyoto-paris-clean-development-mechanism,  accessed 9 June 2022.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    W.K.C Guthrie, The Greek Philosophers from Thales to Aristotle (Methuen & Co 1950).

  54. 54.

    George Henrik von Wright, ‘Progress: Fact and fiction’ in Arnold Burgen, Peter Burgen, Peter McLaughlin and Jürgen Mittelstraß (eds) The idea of progress (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 1997) 1–18.

  55. 55.

    Jacobus A.D Pusani, ‘Sustainable development – historical roots of the concept’ (2006) Environmental Sciences 3(2) 83–96.

  56. 56.

    Ibid 84.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Ibid.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Ibid.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Dean Tipps, Modernisation Theory and the Comparative Study of Societies: A critical perspective (New York: Free Press 1976) 65–77.

  64. 64.

    Pusani (n 55) 87.

  65. 65.

    Ibid 90.

  66. 66.

    Tomislav Klarin, ‘The Concept of Sustainable Development: From its Beginning to the Contemporary Issues’ (2018) Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business 21(1), 74.

  67. 67.

    WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development), Our Common Future (Oxford University Press 1987).

  68. 68.

    Ibid.

  69. 69.

    Pusani (n 55) 92.

  70. 70.

    Ibid.

  71. 71.

    Klarin (n 66) 75.

  72. 72.

    Ibid.

  73. 73.

    United Nations, ‘Envision2030: 17 Goals to transform the world for persons with disabilities’  https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030.html  accessed 4 April 2021.

  74. 74.

    UN General Assembly, ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ (United Nations, A/RES/70/1, 2015)  https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda accessed 28 August 2021.

  75. 75.

    United Nations (n 73).

  76. 76.

    Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform, ‘Climate Change’ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/climatechange accessed 4 April 2021.

  77. 77.

    Z.A Elum and A.S Momodu, ‘Climate change mitigation and renewable energy for sustainable development in Nigeria: A discourse approach’ (2017) Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72–80.

  78. 78.

    Ibid.

  79. 79.

    Mohan Munasinghe, ‘Addressing sustainable development and climate change together using sustainomics’ (2011) WIREs Climate Change 2(1) 10.

  80. 80.

    Oluwaseun Oguntuase, ‘Africa: Climate change and sustainable development must be a two-way street’ (The Africa Report 2009) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www/.theafricareport.com/53604/africa-climate-change-and-sustainable-development-must-be-a-two-way-street/amp/, accessed 5 April 2021.

  81. 81.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Climate Change Profile: Ghana’ (2018)  https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-change-profile-ghana,  accessed 23 May 2022.

  82. 82.

    UNDP-Ghana, ‘Environment and Climate Change in Ghana: Policy Brief’ (December 2021) 4   https://www.gh.undp.org/content/ghana/en/home/library/environment-and-climate-change-in-ghana--policy-brief.html,  accessed 23 May 2022.

  83. 83.

    UNDP-Ghana, ‘Environment and Climate Change in Ghana: Policy Brief’ (December 2021) 4  https://www.gh.undp.org/content/ghana/en/home/library/environment-and-climate-change-in-ghana--policy-brief.html,  accessed 23 May 2022.

  84. 84.

    UNDP-Ghana, ‘Environment and Climate Change in Ghana: Policy Brief’ (December 2021)4   https://www.gh.undp.org/content/ghana/en/home/library/environment-and-climate-change-in-ghana--policy-brief.html , accessed 23 May 2022.

  85. 85.

    Anglica Paiva Rutherford, ‘The Interplay between energy security and law and policy on green energy development: a socio-legal analysis’ (PhD Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2019) 2.

  86. 86.

    Catherine Kuamoah, ‘Renewable Energy Deployment in Ghana: The Hype, Hope and Reality’ (2020) 12 Insights on Africa 1, 45.

  87. 87.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Climate Change Profile: Ghana’ (2018)  https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-change-profile-ghana, accessed 23 May 2022.

  88. 88.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Climate Change Profile: Ghana’ (2018) 4  https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-change-profile-ghana, accessed 23 May 2022.

  89. 89.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Climate Change Profile: Ghana’ (2018)  https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-change-profile-ghana , accessed 23 May 2022.

  90. 90.

    Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) National Climate Change Policy 2013, 4.

  91. 91.

    Ibid 12.

  92. 92.

    Ibid 13.

  93. 93.

    Ibid., 13–14.

  94. 94.

    UNEP/UNDP, ‘National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy’ (2015)  https://www.adaptation-undp.org/sites/default/files/downloads/ghana_national_climate_chnage_adaptation_strategy_nccas-pdf,  accessed 23 May 2022.

  95. 95.

    Felix Asante and Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah, ‘Climate Change and Variability in Ghana: Stocktaking’ (2014) 3 Climate 78.

  96. 96.

    Richard Obeng Mensah, ‘A Comparative Analysis of Ghana and South Africa’s regulatory and investment regime in the energy sector with a focus on the power crisis’ (LLM Dissertation/University of Aberdeen/2016).

  97. 97.

    Ibid.

  98. 98.

    Ibid.

  99. 99.

    World Bank Group (2015), ‘Open Energy Data Assessment Accra (Ghana)’.

  100. 100.

    Ibid.

  101. 101.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Climate Change Profile: Ghana’ (2018) 4   https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-change-profile-ghana, acessed 23 May 2022.

  102. 102.

    Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Climate Change Profile: Ghana’ (2018)  https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/climate-change-profile-ghana,  accessed 23 May 2022.

  103. 103.

    Ibid.

  104. 104.

    Tina Hunter, ‘The Role of Regulatory Framework and State Regulation in Optimising the Extraction of Petroleum Resources: A Study of Australia and Norway.’ (2014) 1 The Extractive Industry and Society 28.

  105. 105.

    Obeng Mensah (n 96).

  106. 106.

    Ronald C Griffin, ‘Ghana Journey: Private Investment, Public Funding, and Domestic Reform’ (2010) 6:1:109 Fla A & MUL Rev 124.

  107. 107.

    Peter Muchlinski, Federico Ortino and Christoph Schreuer (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Investment Law (Oxford University Press 2008) 4.

  108. 108.

    Dominic Npoanlari Dagbanja, The Changing Pattern and Future of Foreign Investment Law and Policy in Ghana: The role of Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements’ (2014) 7Afr J Legal Stud 253, 11.

  109. 109.

    Section 6 of the Capital Investment Act 1963.

  110. 110.

    the Investment Code 1981 (Act 437), the Long Tittle.

  111. 111.

    Sections 1 and 10 of Act 437.

  112. 112.

    Ibid, s 11.

  113. 113.

    Npoanlari Dagbanja (n 108) 23.

  114. 114.

    The Ghana Investment Promotion Center Act 1994, S19.

  115. 115.

    Npoanlari Dagbanja (108) 25.

  116. 116.

    The Memorandum to the Ghana Investment Promotion Center Bill 2013, para 4.

  117. 117.

    The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 2013, s 3.

  118. 118.

    Ibid.

  119. 119.

    Ibid s 4.

  120. 120.

    Ibid s 38.

  121. 121.

    National Energy Board Law 1983 (PNDCL 62).

  122. 122.

    Ishmael Ackah and Renates Kizys, ‘Green growth in oil producing African countries: a panel data analysis of renewable energy demand’ (2015) 50 Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev 1157–1166.

  123. 123.

    Ibid.

  124. 124.

    Ibid.

  125. 125.

    National Energy Board, ‘Issues, Strategies and Programmes in the Energy Sector under the Economic Recovery Programme’ (1990) 62.

  126. 126.

    Ibid.

  127. 127.

    Energy Commission Act 1997.

  128. 128.

    ibid.

  129. 129.

    Ghana – Vision 2020 ‘Presidential Report on Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies’ (The First Step: 1996–2000).

  130. 130.

    Ibid.

  131. 131.

    Ibid.

  132. 132.

    Ibid.

  133. 133.

    Memorandum to Renewable Energy Bill 2011.

  134. 134.

    ibid.

  135. 135.

    Sustainable Energy for all Action Plan (2012).

  136. 136.

    Renewable Energy Act 2011 9 (Acts 832), s 1(1).

  137. 137.

    Ibid, s 1.

  138. 138.

    Ibid, s 50(i).

  139. 139.

    Ibid, s 4.

  140. 140.

    Ibid.

  141. 141.

    Obeng Mensah (n 96).

  142. 142.

    Act 832, s 32(1).

  143. 143.

    Ibid, s 33.

  144. 144.

    Obeng Mensah (n 96).

  145. 145.

    Act 832, s 4(b).

  146. 146.

    Temitope Tunbi Onifade, ‘Global Clues for Choosing Suitable Support Systems for Renewable Energy in the Power Sector’ [2015] RELP 25.

  147. 147.

    Obeng Mensah (n 96).

  148. 148.

    Act 832, s 32.

  149. 149.

    Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 2013 (Act 865), s 3.

  150. 150.

    Ibid, s 4(b).

  151. 151.

    Ibid.

  152. 152.

    Ibid, s 26(2) (3).

  153. 153.

    Article 20(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution allows the state to compulsorily take over or acquire any property if it is necessary to safeguard public safety, public morality, defence, public health, public order, development and so forth.

  154. 154.

    1992 Constitution (Ghana) 1992, art 20.

  155. 155.

    Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act (n 121) s 31.

  156. 156.

    Ibid, s 30.

  157. 157.

    Ibid, s 32.

  158. 158.

    Ibid, s 33(3).

  159. 159.

    Alternative Dispute Resolution Act 2010 (Act 798).

  160. 160.

    Ibid, s 33(2).

  161. 161.

    K Hober, ‘Investment Arbitration and the Energy Charter Treaty’ (2010) 1 Journal of International Dispute Settlement 153, 162.

  162. 162.

    Rudolf Dolzer, Principles of International Investment Law (2edn, OUP 2012) 145.

  163. 163.

    Ibid.

  164. 164.

    US Department of State, ‘Ghana Investment Climate Statement 2015’  http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/241784.pdf  accessed 16 August 2021.

  165. 165.

    Ibid.

  166. 166.

    Ibid.

  167. 167.

    Attorney-General v Balkan Energy Ghana Ltd & Others [2012]2 SCGLR 998, 1002.

  168. 168.

    Attorney-General v Faroe Atlantic Co Ltd [2005–2006] SCGLR 271.

  169. 169.

    Ibid., 278–279.

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  1. Faculty of Law, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Private Mail Bag, Kumasi, Ghana

    Richard Obeng Mensah

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  1. Kumasi, Ghana

    Maame Efua Addadzi-Koom

  2. Sunyani, Ghana

    Michael Addaney

  3. Kumasi, Ghana

    Lydia A. Nkansah

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Mensah, R.O. (2022). Climate Change and Clean Energy Generation in Ghana: Reflecting on the Regulatory and Investment Frameworks. In: Addadzi-Koom, M.E., Addaney, M., Nkansah, L.A. (eds) Democratic Governance, Law, and Development in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15397-6_24

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