A cause close to home
Forest devastation fuels researcher's pursuit to promote energy justice
The local devastation caused by deforestation is close to home for Bond University Assistant Professor of Economics Alex Acheampong. Remnants of the lush forests his grandma described as once surrounding their village (now a town) in Ghana dwindled as Dr Acheampong grew up.
“It was greener. In the villages, they described a lot of trees and bushes but those have all disappeared. Now, it’s not like it used to be even in the early 2000s. It’s really sad.”
The deforestation that Dr Acheampong describes of the area he grew up in, in Ghana, in sub-Saharan Africa, was in part caused by urbanisation and the reliance on forest resources for energy. About a third of the world’s population depends on woodfuel and other biomass as sources of energy. And dependence on woodfuel, the cheapest form of energy, is highest in Africa where about 63 per cent of the population uses it.
This reliance on woodfuel has not only led to endangering biodiversity in the local communities, but endangering the world through its impact on climate change. Dr Acheampong has joined the global race against climate change to prevent the escalation of devastation he saw in his own backyard.
“One of the greatest challenges that the world is facing now is climate change,” says Dr Acheampong, who is also an Associate Editor for Energy Economics and the Journal of Public Affairs. “The forests play a very critical role in terms of minimising the negative impact of climate change because they store a huge amount of carbon emission, which is very good for the environment.
If you're destroying the forest, then it means that we are going to escalate the effect of climate change."
Dr Acheampong’s research at Bond University focuses on how he can contribute to creating a voice to help address climate change.
Globally, forest endowment provides habitat for
AMPHIBIANS
80%
of all amphibians live in forests
BIRDS
75%
of all birds live in forests
MAMMALS
68%
of all mammals live in forests
So why is sub-Saharan Africa so dependent on woodfuel?
A lack of infrastructure in rural areas across sub-Saharan Africa has led to the higher use of wood as biofuel. Dr Acheampong explained that many people don't have access to electricity or cooking technology, which increases their reliance on the forest as a source of energy.
Dr Acheampong's research examines the potential impact of bridging the infrastructure gap between rural and urban areas, policy strategies, and the role that democratic systems play in these relationships. He published a research article in 2023 alongside Dr Eric Opoku, from Nottingham University Business School China, which explored the determinants of deforestation. The empirical research, published in the Journal of Environmental Management, applied advanced economic techniques to data to establish a relationship between rural-urban energy access equality, and deforestation. Dr Acheampong said they were satisfied with the results of their research.
"The idea was to be able to present a paper that could be used to improve policy and practice. We wanted to establish that if policymakers try to bridge the gap in infrastructure between urban and rural areas, it could have benefits for the environment because the rural areas wouldn't have to rely so heavily on the forest for energy," he says.
"We found that when we try to improve infrastructure in terms of clean energy technologies or off-grid technologies, it could help the rural areas to reduce their dependency on the forest. So we really achieved what we wanted to achieve."
“One of the greatest challenges that the world is facing now is climate change.”
Dr Acheampong used data from sub-Saharan Africa to conduct this research paper due to its infrastructure deficits and the increase in deforestation. But he said the findings could have relevance more widely.
"If you look at the continent as whole, access to energy is very poor," he says. "So, yes, governments and policymakers across environment and finance ministries over there will find our paper useful, but this also has global implications for both developing and developed countries. Even if you look at Australia, infrastructure concentration in urban areas is very high compared to that of rural areas.
"Given the race against climate change, I'm hoping to see, in the future, energy policy placing more emphasis on the energy inequality between rural and urban areas."
Dr Acheampong said a barrier to transitioning energy is the perception of costs involved as well as education and culture. He conceded that erecting a standard national energy grid would be "very costly", but there are cost-effective updates that can be made in rural areas, such as solar technology. "Education is also very important because, culturally, people prefer using firewood because of the taste it gives the food when used for cooking. We need education in these rural areas, particularly about the environmental benefits, as well as the health benefits of using this kind of energy," Dr Acheampong says.
Dr Acheampong developed his interest in the environment and climate change when he was in junior high school in Ghana, which led him to pursue economics and geography at university. But the seed was planted even earlier. The impact of deforestation he witnessed growing up had a significant impact, because the environment was a valued part of life in the village in which he was raised.
"The cost associated with climate change is disproportionate depending on where you live," he says. "In rural areas, vulnerable people are paying for it.
"If I don't voice this impact and how we can address it, then others in rural areas will feel that cost too."
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