Assembly Members of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly have been engaged on energy transition as part of a capacity-building program aimed at keeping them informed and gathering feedback.

The stakeholder engagement was led by Robert Amiteye, Coordinator of the AbibiNsroma Foundation.

Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy is critical in an industrial city like Tema, which has two oil refineries in the metropolis. These refineries are central to Ghana's economy, with the country's oil production playing a vital role in the growth of its gross domestic product.

However, due to unstable global oil prices and fluctuating exchange rates, fossil fuels such as imported refined oil drive up the cost of production for industries. This increased cost is often passed on to the consumer.

Pollution from the use of fossil fuels, a major contributor to carbon emissions, was highlighted as one of the associated challenges. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals, countries are committed to adopting clean, green energy for production and consumption.

Ghana has a target to improve its energy mix with renewable solar power generation.

It was evident that the local legislators needed more information on the subject of transitioning from fossil fuels to clean green renewable energy.

The concerns included availability, easy access and affordability of renewable energy technologies to meet the daily needs of society.

The Assembly Members who are local legislators at the district level agreed that transitioning to clean renewable energy would be in the best interest of Tema's growing economy.

Tema being Ghana's foremost industrial hub still has the capacity to host renewable energy technology production companies.

Local production with value addition to our natural resources such as the newly discovered lithium which is vital in the renewals energy chain would create job opportunities and help to add value to the local currency.