Network governance and renewable energy transition in sub-Saharan Africa: Contextual evidence from Ghana

With a focus on renewable energy to achieve low-carbon transition objectives, there is a greater demand for ef-fective collaborative strategies for planning, strategic decision mechanisms, and long-term policy designs to steer the transitions. Government agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and individual citizens play an important role in sustainable energy production. In Ghana, however, such collaboration is fragile in the fight against climate change. This current study seeks to re-examine the position or potential of network governance in Ghana's re-newable energy transition. The study adopted a qualitative approach and employed semi-structured interviews for data gathering. To explore network governance and low carbon transitions in Ghana, we examine key themes such as political environment and impact, actor cooperation and stakeholder interactions, financing and the tran-sition, market design and renewable energy integration, existing regulation and policy gaps for renewable energy transition, clean cooking accessibility, and affordability. The findings reveal the following; Lack of comprehensive consultations with relevant stakeholders leads to lower acceptance of the policy model and sometimes lack of policy awareness. Again, the unavailability and affordability of renewable energy technologies and access to credit facilities is a significant hurdle to long-term renewable transition. Ghana's renewable energy transitions require strong networking and interaction among the public, private, and non-governmental organizations. The study participants believe that the involvement of relevant energy experts and stakeholders devoid of any political biases is instrumental in accelerating renewable energy transitions, as emphasized in the proposed framework. The study recommends that the national renewable energy transition plan be evident to all stake-holders and political administrators. Such policy may encourage renewable energy investment through stable and fixed lending rates by the financial institutions and build a network with international organizations and cor-porations. These findings could serve as valuable information for the transition-based energy process, primarily aiming to govern sustainability changes through network governance. (c) 2022 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the position and potential of network governance in Ghana's renewable energy transition. It highlights the lack of comprehensive consultations with stakeholders, inaccessible and unaffordable renewable energy technologies, and inadequate collaboration among government agencies as key obstacles. The involvement of energy experts and stakeholders, along with network building with international organizations and corporations, is recommended to accelerate the transition.