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Natural resources are abundant worldwide and function as economy stabilizers in almost every nation. However, mishandling these natural resources and their excessive exploitation degrades the environment. This has sparked scholarly interest in investigating the relationship between natural resources and environmental degradation and proposing measures to safeguard the ecosystem. Despite these efforts, research on this interaction in Ghana is limited. This paper fills the knowledge gap by exploring the short and long-run relationships between natural resources and environmental degradation in Ghana from 1990 to 2020 while employing renewable energy consumption, economic growth, trade openness, and industrialization as additional parameters. Robust econometric approaches are engaged for precise and reliable results, revealing that all the study variables are stationary at their first difference and co-integrated in the long run. Thus, the novel dynamic ARDL simulation estimator is adopted to examine the short and long-run connections between the study parameters. The results demonstrate that increased natural resources, economic growth, and trade openness escalate environmental degradation in the short and long run. However, an increase in renewable energy consumption is found to reduce environmental degradation in the short and long run. Further, industrialization accelerates environmental degradation in the short run but diminishes it in the long run. Finally, it is recommended that Ghana adopts sustainable development approaches to achieve a harmonious balance between economic growth and environmental protection, effectively addressing challenges of environmental degradation, meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and promoting equitable natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mismanaged plastic waste is a major environmental concern, especially in countries of the Global South. Municipal solid waste management can not only alleviate environmental problems but also create jobs and promote local economic growth. However, providing appropriate waste management services is costly. The question is to what extent waste management policies that have proven to be successful in other geographies can help solve the challenge in developing countries. Specifically, the economics and financial flows along the value chain need to be known. In this paper, we shed light on these questions by presenting a novel, model-based method to elicit and assess the cost structure of the recycling sector in developing countries. We exemplify our method with plastics waste management in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana—an area particularly challenged by plastic waste. For this purpose, we surveyed over 80 participants of the waste management value chain and combined the data with insights from expert interviews and workshops. Based on this data, we built a bottom-up model with 67 parameters, reflecting all cost positions in the waste management value chain. We found that street waste pickers are the poorest and most vulnerable, earning only a fraction of the already low minimum wage. Middlemen and aggregators, while often being criticized for their earnings, also provide social-security-like services to waste pickers. In addition, formal and informal recyclers differ not only in earnings and size but also in recyclate quality where the informal sector provides higher quality. [Display omitted] • Analysis of formal & informal plastic waste management value chain in Accra, Ghana. • New bottom-up method for estimating & modelling true cost of waste management. • Waste pickers abstain from necessary safety equipment to achieve positive returns. • Formal recycling structures allow for scaling but reduce recyclate quality. • Substantial investments are needed to scale up recycling capacity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale mining in Ghana is defined to include both the exploitation of mineral deposits (1) using fairly rudimentary implements and/or (2) at low levels of production with minimal capital investment. While the large-scale mining—of particularly gold—has become predominant, small-scale mining, which predates such operations, has continued to be an important economic activity, particularly within the remote and poorer areas of the country. The environmental impacts of such small operations have, however, varied, depending on methods and the scale of operation. The factors that have contributed to aggravating these environmental impacts are economic, technical, legal, and operational in nature. Although mitigation efforts have had a limited impact, it is expected that the measures now being considered for adoption will improve the efficacy of the Government of Ghana’s drive towards improving environmental management in resident small-scale precious metal mining operations.This paper examines the environmental impacts of small-scale mining in Ghana—with particular emphasis on precious minerals and metals extraction—and outlines a series of initiatives for improving environmental performance in the industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The CO 2 emission that accompanies significant consumption of energy raises concern as for whether economies that require such path like Ghana can also achieve sustainable economic development. In this paper, the driving factors of energy-related CO 2 emissions and its future trend for Ghana is studied using a time series data spanning from 1980 to 2016 in an Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model with Extended Kaya Identity framework. First Kaya identity was adopted and extended to decomposed CO 2 emission driving factors into carbon intensity, energy intensity, economic activity, and substitution effect. The estimates were further used to forecast CO 2 emissions through to 2030. The results indicate the major driver for historical CO 2 emissions increase in Ghana has been the transition from biomass to petroleum fuel consumption. This is followed by the energy intensity of economic output, carbon intensity changes and overall economic activity. Carbon-free energy consumption currently does not lead to a reduction of CO 2 in Ghana. The forecasting results show the current trend of energy consumption and economic development path have the potential for CO 2 emissions reduction. Some targeted policy suggestions in relation to the estimate results are also provided. • Energy consumption structure in Ghana favour CO 2 emissions increase towards 2030. • Major driver of CO 2 emissions in Ghana is a transition from biomass to petroleum. • The energy intensity for Ghana does not offer low CO 2 emission path. • Economic development path in Ghana leads to CO 2 emissions increase. • CO 2 emissions reduction potential exist for Ghana towards 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]