Anthropogenic Factors Impact on Ghana Using Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology and Cobb-Douglas Production Function

Abstract

The world is faced with increasing ecological effect on human activities. These effects have a direct and indirect impact on environment. The study examined the impact of anthropogenic factors on carbon dioxide (CO2) emission of Ghana for the period 1990-2016 using Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model and Cobb-Douglas Production Function. Evidence of our analysis indicates that 1% increase in population growth, residential energy efficiency and access to electricity will cause an increase of CO2by 98%, 97% and 161% respectively. Consequently, the relationship between the variables is considered as elastic and that a small change in the driving forces will cause greater proportionate change in environmental pollution. Application of Cobb-Douglas Production Function revealed that increasing in return to scale exists in Ghana and therefore, CO2 emission in Ghana increases more than the factors that drive it. Our study found long-run relationship between the variables but no causal effect of the predicting variables on dependent variable in Ghana. The contribution degrees of the driving forces to the change in CO2 emissions from the STIRPAT model suggested that technology is the key driving factor, while population followed closely.