Investigating Barriers to Low-Carbon Policy Implementation among Mining Companies in Ghana
Investigating Barriers to Low-Carbon Policy Implementation among Mining Companies in Ghana
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DOI：
10.3390/su16051798
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发表时间：
2024-02
期刊：
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Seth Adom;Kenichi Matsui
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Seth Adom;Kenichi Matsui
《巴黎协定》已将减少碳排放的努力确定为减缓气候变化的主要目标。联合国气候变化框架公约第26次缔约方会议强调了全球为更清洁和更绿色的采矿所做的努力，敦促采矿业采用更绿色的减排技术和战略。在巴黎会议上，加纳承诺将二氧化碳排放量减少15%，并将可再生能源在国家能源结构中的份额提高到10%。然而，加纳实施低碳政策的努力因多种原因而受到阻碍。加纳是非洲的主要和世界第七大黄金生产国。采矿业为外汇收入和政府收入作出了重大贡献。黄金开采业贡献了加纳总矿产收入的约95%。考虑到这些情况，根本问题是加纳的采矿业如何为减少二氧化碳排放的努力做出贡献。本文调查了加纳矿业公司实施低碳排放政策的障碍。我们采用了5分Likert量表陈述问题。这项问卷调查是在加纳的四家大型金矿公司中进行的。由于可用公司的样本数量有限，我们使用描述性分析来评估答复。结果显示，企业对成本、政府碳减排政策和低碳技术的获取等问题的应对方式存在很大差异。那些奋进准备相对较少的公司强调了在使用低碳技术的情况下确保足够能源的不确定性。他们还表示需要更多训练有素的工人来处理低碳技术。我们发现，企业面临的一个主要挑战是实施低碳排放政策所涉及的预期成本。与相关政府部门在低碳采矿选择方面存在沟通空白，政府应能够促进低碳技术提供商的参与，例如太阳能光伏发电装置。
Efforts for carbon emission reduction have been identified as a major climate change mitigation target in the Paris Agreement. The 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change highlighted the worldwide effort for cleaner and greener mining, urging the mineral industry to embrace greener operational emissions reduction technologies and strategies. At the Paris Conference, Ghana pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 15% and increase its renewable energy share to 10% of the national energy mix. Ghana’s efforts to implement a low-carbon policy were, however, hampered for several reasons. Ghana is Africa’s leading and the world’s seventh largest gold producer. Mining has contributed significantly to foreign currency acquisition and government revenue. The gold mining sector contributes approximately 95% of Ghana’s total mineral revenue. Considering these situations, the fundamental question is how Ghana’s mining industry can contribute to CO2 emission reduction efforts. This paper investigates barriers to low-carbon emission policy implementation among mining companies in Ghana. We adopted 5-point Likert scale statement questions. The questionnaire survey was conducted among Ghana’s four large-scale gold mining companies. As the sample number of available companies is limited, we used a descriptive analysis to assess the responses. The results show that the companies expressed widely different ways to respond to the issues of cost, a government policy for carbon emission reduction, and the acquisition of low-carbon technologies. Those companies that are relatively less prepared for this endeavor emphasized the uncertainties of securing sufficient energy in case of using low-carbon technologies. They also expressed a need for more trained workers to handle low-carbon technologies. We found that a major challenge among companies was the expected cost involved in implementing a low-carbon emission policy. There was a communication gap with the relevant government ministry about low-carbon mining options where the government should be able to facilitate the involvement of low-carbon technology providers, such as solar Photovoltaics installation.