The Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND), in collaboration with Africa Movements Building Space (AMBS), organized community outreach activities in March 2024 in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The goal was to promote awareness and demand for renewable energy sources and energy-efficient products among Ghanaians.

The community engagement included distributing educational materials on energy efficiency to energy appliance users and sensitizing people on how to use the Certified Appliance App, which helps identify fake-labelled appliances.

The exercise was organized in collaboration with the Energy Commission of Ghana, which provided relevant educational materials on the Certified Appliance App and Energy Efficiency and Conversation Guide. The community engagement was to support the Commission’s initiative on the Energy Efficiency Star Labelling campaign with the slogan “No Label, No Good,” which denotes that any electrical appliances without the yellow label are not energy efficient.

The activity is part of a project focused on enhancing Ghana’s energy transition agenda through youth activism. The project is adopting the “Push and Pull Strategy” approach to achieve the objective of this intervention, which is to trigger increased demand for renewable energy and energy-efficient products among citizens while campaigning against fossil fuels.

During the community engagement exercise, it was established that there is a need for more education and sensitization using community media to reach more people so they can make informed decisions about acquiring energy-efficient appliances. The Energy Commission should collaborate with community-based organizations (CBOs) that work on energy efficiency and renewable energy to help educate community members on energy-efficient pathways.

The initiative aligns with COP28 commitments to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from around 2 percent to over 4 percent every year until 2030, aiming to save costs, reduce greenhouse gases, and foster a healthier environment.