Ghana’s deputy energy minister, Hon. Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has said that his country considering a number of important factors in the global conversation about energy transition, to avoid sitting on stranded oil assets that are key to Ghana economic.
Mercer, who is also the Member of Parliament for Sekondi, was quoted by Ghana Times, saying that whilst Africa remains the lowest emitter of carbon globally, the effects of stringent and rigid transition policies towards clean energy will affect the country’s oil and gas industries “and ultimately Ghana’s economies in several important, adverse ways.”
The minister who addressed a town hall meeting in Takoradi as part of the national conversation currently under way on the subject, said, “The Ghanaian economy is no exception. The objectives of a National Energy Transition Plan should however take into consideration the peculiar circumstances of Ghana’s abundant natural resources and her development needs as articulated by President Akufo-Addo in Glasgow, Scotland during the COP26 conference earlier this year.”
Acknowledging the importance and effects of climate change, the deputy minister said, “it would be wholly unfair for the world to demand that Africa abandons the exploitation of our resources needed to finance her development and help us to cope better with the threat of climate change, at a time when many countries on the continent have just discovered them.”
He stressed that Ghana’s transition plan should therefore seek to position the oil and gas industry to play a more significant role in the development of the country.
This, he said, can be done through increased production of crude oil to generate more revenue and increased value addition to the economy through power generation and petrochemical industrialization, for instance.
Vice President, H.E Alhaji Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, a week ago set the ball rolling on a national conversation on energy transition when he launched the National Energy Transition Forum in Accra to set the ball rolling.
Ghana Times said so far, the Energy Transition Team has been to the Volta Regional capital Ho, and further engagements are planned for all the country’s regional capital, with the next event taking place at Kumasi’s Golden Tulip Hotel tomorrow 1st March 2022.
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