Tackling within-country spatial inequalities in household energy use towards sustainable development: The case of Ghana.

Within-country spatial inequalities in accessibility and usage of modern energy and its services have been recognized by several studies globally. Despite this, studies that commit to analyzing and identifying ways to bridge these spatial disparities are scanty. Being a sub-Saharan African country with hyped improvement in energy access, other dimensions of household energy use deteriorate in Ghana, coupled with spatial inequalities within the country. This study, therefore, examined the socioeconomic drivers of the spatial disparities in household energy accessibility, utilization, and affordability between the three ecological zones of Ghana, as well as the rural and urban divide. Cross-sectional data from the latest Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 7) was analyzed using the multidimensional energy poverty measure, the logit regression model, and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition for binary dependent models. The study found spatial differences in multidimensional energy poverty between the two geographical divides to be driven by socioeconomic characteristics such as education, location of residence, and income poverty. The study recommends that the socioeconomic characteristics of households be improved through programs and policies to alleviate the spatial inequalities in modern energy use within countries.