Access to clean energy is necessary for environmental cleanliness and poverty reduction. That notwithstanding, many in developing countries especially those in sub-Saharan Africa region lack clean energy for their routine domestic activities. This study sought to unravel the factors that influence clean energy accessibility in sub-Saharan Africa region.

The crucial role of electricity in prosecuting the development agenda of economies is widely known. Yet some key variables are lacking in the assessment of electricity demand determinants. One such variable is power crises. This study re-visits the discussion by investigating the role of power crises on electricity demand. We employ data from 1980 to 2018 to examine how power crises in general and in particular the 2012–2015 severe power crisis in Ghana impacts electricity consumption.

AbstractPoverty and energy poverty are parts of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The former has been extensively covered in the literature, whereas the latter has not been given the necessary attention until the last decade. In this paper, we use multidimensional measures of energy poverty and poverty to ascertain whether energy‐poor households are also poor, and vice versa. In addition, the study seeks to examine the factors responsible for poverty and energy poverty.

Despite the numerous benefits of using energy efficient technologies (EETs), their adoption has been low and quite lethargic, particularly in countries within the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. Behavioral factors are among the list of factors that have been identified to explain the slow adoption of EETs, particularly in SSA countries.

PurposeThe quest for economic development has brought adverse effects on the environment through the release of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2). This will counter the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. This study, therefore, investigates the effect of electricity consumption and urbanization on CO2 emissions in Ghana.

This study answers an important policy question related to energy efficiency transition tendencies and the role that control of corruption and regulatory quality can play, using the Stochastic Frontier and Panel Markov-Switching techniques with panel data from 46 African countries. We have demonstrated in this study that African countries have been locked in a low energy-efficient state, with tendencies to transition out considered low to moderate with a 21-24% chance and more likely in the long term (i.e., after a decade).

The Sustainable Development Goal 7 seeks universal access to energy, substantial increase in the share of renewable energy and doubling of energy efficiency efforts. The success of these targets most likely depends on maximizing, where they exist, positive synergies or trade-offs with other development outcomes. Studies investigating the relationship between energy efficiency and (un)employment remain inconclusive and mainly focus their analysis on the energy-supply side, neglecting the demand side.

The literature on the impact of electricity access are generally inconclusive. Potential causes include geographical differences, limited external validity (due to the focus on small-scale projects) and self-selection bias (due to not accounting for observed and unobserved heterogeneities) of some studies. Moreover, a large part of the literature on energy-gender nexus addresses between-gender instead of within-gender disparity, which is considered relevant because socio-economic characteristics do differ within a particular gender group.

This article estimates the effect of financial development on electricity consumption for economies with above and below mean human capital index in 45 African countries. The study applied the simultaneous system GMM estimator (adjusted for cross-sectional dependence) and the Aiken and West slope difference test. We performed further robustness checks, such as sample sensitivity analysis to address potential outlier problem. The result showed that the total effect of financial development on electricity consumption is negative, but the direct and indirect effects are different.

This study examines the effect of finance on energy efficiency in Africa, addressing two fundamental empirical issues in the energy-finance literature: (1) simultaneous modelling of efficiency estimates and determinants of efficiency and (2) two-way endogeneity problem with income and financial depth. I apply the endogenous stochastic frontier method. Life expectancy at birth instruments for income while religion, latitude of capital city and legal system origin instrument for financial depth.