Indoor Air Pollution and Health in Ghana: Self-Reported Exposure to Unprocessed Solid Fuel Smoke

A comprehensive review of the production, adoption and sustained use of biomass pellets in Ghana

Ghana's Renewable Energy Master Plan of 2019 includes the production and use of biomass pellets. However, pellets have neither been developed commercially nor included in Ghana's energy mix. This paper reviewed the prospect of production, adoption and sustained use of pellets in Ghana. Besides having abundant biomass resources, Ghana has high market demand and relevant policies for pellet development. The production of pellets can significantly replace traditional household biomass demand and improve environmental and health quality. However, the production and use of pellets are limited due to technical, financial, social and policy issues. Our estimates show that 3% of the annual national average household income will be spent on pellet demand for cooking, with the highest burden on rural households in Ghana. Practical measures are required since the cost of pellets and gasifier stoves may limit pellet adoption and use in Ghana. Based on study findings, it is recommended that the government of Ghana establishes a robust supply chain and provides infrastructure for pellet production and use. Existing renewable energy policies should be reviewed to remove ambiguities, attract investment, and build capacity in the renewable energy sector. Apart from raising public awareness of the benefits of pellets use, the government of Ghana should ensure that continuous and thorough impact assessments are undertaken to assess the implications of pellet production and use. This review will inform policymaking on achieving sustainable production, adoption and use of pellets and assess Ghana's contribution to achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals.

Household fuel choices and consumption intensity in Pakistan: evidence from HIES data 2001-2019

The adoption of clean energy (electricity and gas) for domestic purposes has increased over the decades, yet the share of clean energy in total energy consumption remains low. Therefore, this study analyses seven rounds of HIES surveys in Pakistan collected between 2001 to 2019 to understand the energy use patterns and why clean fuel consumption is low among households that have already adopted clean energy. To this end, the present study applied the Probit and Tobit models to examine the determinants of using different fuel types and their consumption intensity. The results show that female-headed households are more likely to adopt and consume more clean fuels such as electricity and gas. Moreover, education, wealth, and urban location have a positive association with clean fuel adoption and consumption. The study also finds that age and household size have a non-linear impact on clean fuel consumption intensity. The study recommends policies to achieve SDG 7 by improving accessibility and affordability by increasing income and the supply of clean fuel. Further, it emphasizes enhancing the knowledge about the benefit of using clean energy through education programs.

Role of Peer Effects in China's Energy Transition: Evidence from Rural Beijing

China's efforts to encourage energy transition from coal to cleaner methods of space heating have gained great achievement. However, not all progress met expectations; that is, some households still rely on solid fuel. Sociocultural factors provide one plausible explanation. While existing studies have examined and quantified the socioeconomic factors, little attention has been paid to the peer effects that are often critical in the Chinese cultural context. This study first presents household energy consumption patterns using household-level data on the coal-switching program in rural Beijing. It shows that the coal-switching program did not completely eliminate the use of solid fuel for space heating as expected. To explore the underlying determinants, we apply an econometric model of the forces driving energy transition, focusing on peer effects. The results confirm that the coal-switching program significantly reduces the use of solid fuel. Moreover, it reveals that the peer effect, measured by the average village-level solid fuel use rate, matters for households' fuel choices. We also find that the peer effect varies with different income levels and policies. These findings provide new evidence and insights for future policy design.

Indoor air pollution from solid fuel on children pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

An updated systematic review was conducted to assessing on the association between indoor air pollution caused by household energy consumption and childhood pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries. We performed a meta-analysis from the electronic databases of PubMed, Cochrane library, Web of Science, EMBASE. Studies were selected when they reported childhood pneumonia or ALRI in relation to indoor air pollution resulted from solid fuel. Studies must provide results on exposure prevalence of children aged below 5 years from Asia or Africa. We devoted ourselves to identifying randomized controlled experiments and observational epidemiological researches, which revealed the relation between household usage of solid fuel and childhood pneumonia. Among 1954 articles, 276 were reviewed thoroughly and 16 conduced to such a meta-analysis. It was found that there is a significant relationship between the solid fuel combustion and increasing risk of childhood pneumonia (OR = 1.66, 95%CI 1.36-2.02). The summary odds ratios from biomass use and mixed fuel use were, respectively, 1.86 (95%CI 1.15-3.02) and 1.58 (95%CI 1.38-1.81), with substantial between study heterogeneity (I² = 87.2% and 29.2%, respectively). According to the subgroup analysis along with the meta-regression analysis, the risk of using solid fuel in Asian regions is higher than that in African regions. Studies based on non-hospital participates (I² = 49.5%) may also a source of heterogeneity. We found that indoor air pollution generated by the usage of solid fuel might be a significant risk factor for pneumonia in children and suggested improving the indoor air quality by promoting cleaner fuel will be important in undeveloped countries.

The role of education and income for cognitive functioning in old age: A cross-country comparison

OBJECTIVES

Previous studies have shown that higher education promotes cognitive health. This effect, however, is embedded in the living conditions of a particular country. Since it is not clear to what extent the country and its specific living standards are necessary preconditions for the observed effect, we investigated whether the impact of education and income on cognitive functioning differs between countries.

METHODS

Analyses were based on harmonized data from the World Health Organization's multi-country Study on global AGEing and adult health, the Health and Retirement Study, and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe of over 85,000 individuals aged 50 years and older. Analyses were conducted via multivariate regression analyses and structural equation modeling adjusted for age, gender, marital status, health status, and depression.

RESULTS

The effect of education was twice as large as the effect of income on cognitive functioning and indirectly moderated the effect of income on cognitive functioning. The effect sizes varied strongly between countries. The country's gross domestic product per capita seems to influence cognitive functioning.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that education has a dominant effect on cognitive functioning in people aged 50 years and older, which might even offset the adverse implications of living with low income on cognitive health. Therefore, expanding efforts to achieve universal education are essential to mitigate health disparities due to low income and early life disadvantages, including chances for good cognitive functioning over the life-span.