Ghana to pilot electric buses – Deputy Transport Minister reveals
The Transport Ministry has revealed its intention to use electric buses in Ghana on a pilot basis as part of the means to decarbonize and contribute toward zero net emissions. It is therefore importing 10 electric buses to pilot in selected cities.
Deputy Minister of Transport, Alhassan Tampuli announced this at the national energy transition forum at Mole on Tuesday.
“We have several electric vehicles running in Accra. What we don’t have are the charging points, so it is difficult for us to roll out soon enough,” he explained.
He indicated that the government is importing the buses “for us to pilot and see how we can transition when the time comes.”
The term Energy transition alludes to the global shift from carbon-based systems of energy production and consumption such as oil and gas to fuel woods to clean sources of energy such as wind, solar, and nuclear energy to reduce emissions.
Though according to some research Ghana emits just about 0.12% of the world’s emissions, there is the need to control the growth of her greenhouse emissions and work towards a net-zero future.
Ghana is therefore in the process of developing an energy transition plan to work towards this target.
Deputy Energy, Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, also pointed out that Africa and developing countries, in general, are expecting the west to reduce their emissions more and faster and also fund developing countries in their quest to reduce emissions.
Achieving net-zero emissions means that some greenhouse gases are still released, but these are offset by removing an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and storing it permanently in soil, plants, or materials.
