Climate change and the Bui Dam in Ghana

It is evident that the climate is changing and countries especially the developing ones are vulnerable. Various sectors such as water, agriculture and even land use are all being affected by climate change. Hydropower, a major source of electricity in Ghana is one key sector which has been hit by the changing climate thus contributing to the continuous power outages in the country. Government had to rush for emergency thermal plants at a cost whilst maintaining them with oil and gas has not been cheap. It is important that economies are able to adapt to climate change and its uncertainties by being climate resilient as well as making sure long-lived infrastructure such as hydropower incorporate the problem of uncertainty. It would be also expedient for developing nations to be able to climate proof their entire energy sector and deal with climate change head on. In Africa, hydropower plants have been built without proper climate risk analysis. In Ghana, reports suggested that the Bui hydroelectric project did not consider climate change. Therefore this research was to understand how decision makers take decisions on hydropower investments in light of climate change and its associated risks and uncertainties. To be able to understand this process, the researcher used the Bui Dam as a case study, consulted various publications relating to the issue and conducted interviews with key informants. It was analysed using a framework adopted by Lemos et al. (2012) to understand the barriers to the use of climate information during the project. It was discovered that, the priority of the government was to attempt to solve the then power crisis and not necessarily consider climate change adaptation. A climate risk assessment has been scheduled to take place as part of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of The Pwalugu Dam. However, government must do more to support climate research as well as take advantage of various approaches that have been developed to aid decision makers when dealing with climate change uncertainty