Abstract

Household air pollution accounts for about 4 million premature deaths annually worldwide with Ghana recording about 8,800 deaths each year amidst the HAP-influenced diseases resulting in increasing health expenditure. Clean Cook solutions such as the adoption of LPG and ICS can be used to mitigate household air pollution and save lives. This study sought to estimate the BCR and NPV of LPG and ICS over a 10-year and 3-year period respectively and assess Ghana's policy context on the phenomenon. The study found a lack of a comprehensive national policy on the phenomenon and the need for a national strategy and policy in addressing these as there currently exist policy gaps and a disjointed efforts between the relevant state institutions. The study also found the LPG intervention to be the most beneficial and having more health and environmental benefits as it recorded higher BCRs and NPVs than the ICS. However, considering the average annual household expenditure, the ICS had a higher chance of public acceptance due to its affordability than the LPG. Considering the high adoption cost of LPG as compared to the ICS, it is recommended that the government gives tax holidays to local manufacturers of methane stove and LPG cylinders to reduce the cost of production and sales price and place subsidies on LPG to minimize the cost of operation to encourage households to adopt this cleaner option. It is also recommended that the government invests in research into innovative clean cook solutions that consider the economic inequities.