ACRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Ghana is making significant gains in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through fuel substitution with improvements in the operational efficiency of the country’s electricity distribution system.

Villages, towns and communities are gradually substituting the use of wood fuel with electricity, according to the Deputy Minister of Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo.

This, he says, is the impact of grid expansion works carried out under the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP) as well as the Productive Uses of Electricity (PUE) activities initiated by the government.

“I am happy to note that the project has also assisted this transition to a low-carbon economy through the development of renewable energy for the expansion of access to electricity, where economically justified,” he said at the launch of the GEDAP in Kumasi.

Wood fuel is a very important energy source for Ghanaian, especially in rural households who depend on it for cooking and for small-scale processing activities.

With an annual consumption of wood fuel estimated at 16million m3, forests and wildlife are under stress of illegal logging, charcoal burning, wildfire and unsustainable farming activities.

These have climate change impacts that lead to the drying up of water bodies, land degradation and other environmental devastation.

Mr. Owuraku Aidoo says the GEDAP has the global environmental objective of supporting Ghana’s transition to a low carbon economy through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

He noted the four project objectives of the project has significantly been met, including electricity access and renewable energy development, sector and institutional development, distribution improvement, and transmission system upgrade.

The Project’s development objective is to improve the operational efficiency of the electricity distribution system and increase the population’s access to electricity.

Implementation of the $210million project funded under the Global Environmental Facility started in 2007 and ends in 2019.