In 2013, the government launched the Rural Liquefied Petroleum Gas Promotion Programme (RLPGPP) as part of its commitment to providing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) access to 50% of Ghana’s population by 2020.
Among other things, the programme sought to reduce the use of wood as fuel or fuel wood consumption among rural dwellers, which constitutes an existential threat to the climate change initiative.
It is in the light of this that about 170,000 rural households were targeted to receive LPG cook stoves by the end of 2017, to help make the programme a reality and to help safeguard the environment.
However, as at November 2017, an approximately 149,500 households, who were mainly rural dwellers, have been officially registered to have received the stoves. Though the initiative looked quite good to help to achieve the main purpose of the climate change initiative, it is sad to notice that the programme has woefully failed to achieve its objectives, due to several reasons.
Firstly, adaptation to the initiative, where beneficiaries would have to mainly use gas instead of fuel wood is a challenge, especially judging from the fact that there must first of all be a paradigm shift.
However, another major challenge facing the initiative is the fact that many urban dwellers have also resorted to the use of charcoal these days, due to the high cost of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas. The high demand for charcoal, as an alternative to gas, has led to the astronomical felling of wood for the production of charcoal to meet the demand in both rural and urban areas.
It is in view of this development that The Chronicle would like to associate itself with a statement made by the MP for Gomoa West, Mr. Richard Gyan-Mensah, that efforts must be made to reduce the price of LPG.
This stems from the fact that the wanton felling of trees, due to the high demand for charcoal, is viewed as one of the major elements that makes the environment susceptible to climate change, which is now a global phenomenon. This obviously contributes to climate change, massive flooding, destruction of crops, soil erosion, fewer crops as well as increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Additionally, the process of burning the felled trees to obtain charcoal also contributes to climate change because as it burns, it produces carbon dioxide.
Meanwhile, carbon dioxide contributes significantly to greenhouse gases which are mainly responsible for climate change hence our support for his call to sustain the use of LPG among both urban and rural dwellers.
In the view of the paper, the recent hikes in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG is detrimental to the sustenance of the climate change initiative.
For instance, a 14 kilogram cylinder costs more than GH¢200.00 due to the rippling effects we continue to face following the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia and Ukraine crises.
Admittedly, we are still not in normal times, which means that we must adjust to be able to bring the economy back on track but this must be done with more tactfulness so that we do not create another problem in our quest to solve the problem at hand.
Therefore, the cost price of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas must be looked at holistically, so as to reduce the high demand for charcoal, particularly among the urban users.
