Publication: Kenya's Strategy to Make Liquefied Petroleum Gas the Nation's Primary Cooking Fuel
Loading...
Published
2018-09-01
ISSN
Date
2018-09-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Adoption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a clean cooking solution is lagging behind Kenya's 2030 development goal, despite several government initiatives along the LPG value chain. Until now, the government's strategy focused on reducing the cost of LPG and increasing its use among lower-income Kenyans. Sustainable uptake may be accelerated by taking vigorous regulatory steps to reduce the consumer price and minimize unlicensed LPG sales. Some measures include reviewing the economics underpinning the intervention, creating an enabling environment for LPG adoption by upper- and middle-income groups, developing annual uptake targets, and devising a better metric to measure progress.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“van den Berg, Inge C.. 2018. Kenya's Strategy to Make Liquefied Petroleum Gas the Nation's Primary Cooking Fuel. Live Wire;2018/89. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30391 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Shared Infrastructure for Clean Hydrogen(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-31)Studies of the development of clean hydrogen have often focused on the production side. Infrastructure built and used for storage and transportation warrants more attention. Among the topics that should be assessed are system design, operation, integration, and ownership; market design and governance; and planning. This Live Wire examines case studies and literature on the infrastructure for hydrogen hubs, with an emphasis on the benefits of shared infrastructure. Given the breadth of hydrogen production and infrastructure, the focus is on renewable hydrogen production for domestic use and for export after conversion to ammonia.Publication A Responsible Data Sharing Framework for the Distributed Renewable Energy Sector(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-25)In collaboration with Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency, the World Bank is piloting a Responsible Data Sharing Framework (RDSF) for the distributed renewable energy sector. The framework was developed over the course of 12 months in 2024, through collaboration with some 25 stakeholders from government and the private sector. It embodies a shared ambition to turn data into better outcomes for the communities served. At its core, an RDSF for the sector sets out how appropriate data about projects can be shared in ways that are efficient and effective. In 2023, the World Bank approved the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project. DARES aims to bring new or improved access to clean energy to 17.5 million people and replace more than 280,000 petrol and diesel generators in the process. The RDSF pilot is part of DARES.Publication Measuring the Climate Resilience of the Power Sector: Harmonization, Not Homogenization(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-31)Although by its very nature climate resilience can never be fully “standardized”, the development and mainstreaming of climate resilience metrics can benefit from greater consensus around key topics. Areas such as metric categories, methodologies, and reporting frameworks can be aligned through coordinated efforts among regulators, utilities, and other stakeholders, enabling more consistent, effective, and scalable resilience planning across the sector. The key is harmonization and not homogenization.Publication Decarbonizing Ammonia and Nitrogen Fertilizers with Clean Hydrogen(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-12)Synthetic fertilizers are essential to sustaining the world’s population, but their production is responsible for 1.8–2.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clean hydrogen holds growing potential (amid falling costs) to decarbonize fertilizer production. Hydrogen produces synthetic ammonia, a building block of most fertilizers. With the fertilizer market as a reliable off-taker, this shift could support the overall expansion of clean hydrogen, even as it boosts global food security. However, this transition may require adjustments, including changes in fertilizer types and modifications to existing subsidy schemes.Publication Mini Grids for Underserved Main Grid Customers(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-21)Can mini grids help to solve the problem of poorly served main grid connected communities A mini grid is an electricity generation and distribution network that supplies electricity to a localized group of customers. Mini grids can be isolated from or connected to the main grid. To date, most mini grids in Sub-Saharan Africa have been built in electrically isolated rural villages not connected to the main grid. Based on broad experience working with mini grid programs in more than 20 low- and middle-income countries and five detailed case studies, the authors offer observations and recommendations about mini grids in general and a new type known as “undergrid mini grids” being used in Nigeria and India to serve poorly served communities.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Baseline and Feasibility Assessment for Alternative Cooking Fuels in Senegal(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05)This report was prepared by Practical Action Consulting for the Africa Clean Cooking Energy Solutions (ACCES) initiative of the World Bank. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa continues to rely overwhelmingly on traditional fuels and cooking technologies, both of which are a major cause of death and illness as well as a range of socio-economic and environmental problems. More than 90 per cent of the rural population of Senegal relies on solid fuels (charcoal and firewood in particular, but also dung and agricultural residues) to meet its household cooking needs. The primary objective of this study is, (a) to establish a baseline for the current level of penetration of four alternative cooking fuels in Senegal in a number of pre-identified regions, and (b) to assess the feasibility of adopting them in those regions. The four fuels are briquettes from charcoal dust and agricultural residues; ethanol, mainly from sugar cane residue (that is, molasses); pure plant oil (PPO) from locally grown, oil-bearing plants such as Jatropha curcas; and a household biogas system using mainly livestock waste. Against this background, the World Bank commissioned this study to assess the feasibility of promoting the use of a number of alternative cooking fuels in Senegal, which were pre-identified for possible support under its Sustainable and Participatory Energy Management Project (PROGEDE II). Four alternative fuels were analysed in terms of their potential for adoption by households for cooking, each in a different region of Senegal: (a) briquettes in Dakar, (b) ethanol in Saint-Louis, (c) biogas in Kaolack, and (d) pure plant oil (PPO) in Tambacounda. The study includes a baseline assessment of household cooking fuels in Senegal, including a number of alternative fuels, as well as an analysis of their potential supply chains. Its objective is to inform a range of relevant stakeholders, in particular the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Senegal, the World Bank's PROGEDE II, nongovernmental organisations, investors and private sector companies, about strategies to increase production of and access to these alternative fuels. The study also presents important lessons on each alternative fuel deriving from household surveys in each region, a review of the relevant literature, interviews with stakeholder organisations, and focus group discussions (FGDs).Publication Household Fuel Use and Fuel Switching in Guatemala(Washington, DC, 2003-06)Household fuel choice in the past, has often been analyzed and understood through the lens of the energy ladder model. This model places relatively heavy emphasis on household fuel switching in response to rising incomes. This report views energy use through a household economics framework. The household economics framework clarifies that, in addition to income and market prices, the opportunity costs of firewood collection also need to be taken into account, in shaping demand for all fuels. The opportunity costs of firewood collection are determined by household cash, labor, land, and wood resources. Fuel choices therefore need to be understood in terms of relative household resource scarcities. The household economics framework also makes it clear that it may be perfectly rational for households to use a portfolio of different energy sources at any point in time. The results of logit, and multinomial logit regression analysis suggest that expenditure, education, household size, region, ethnicity, electrification status, and gender composition are important in influencing fuel choice. Prices and opportunity costs of firewood also matter. It remains intriguing that so many urban households continue to use wood, which is not a cheap fuel when it has to be purchased. Experience of household energy use in Guatemala suggests that, as household fuel policies elsewhere concerned with switching from biomass, need to look beyond simple pricing instruments to a wider array of policy options. Household energy strategies must be based on the realization that large groups will continue to meet their cooking needs with fuel wood for the foreseeable future. Strategies therefore cannot rely exclusively on inter-fuel substitution. A balance needs to be struck between policies aiming at inter-fuel substitution, and policies seeking to ameliorate the negative consequences of fuel wood, such as improved stoves and better ventilation. And, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) needs to be targeted primarily to areas where households rely on expensive purchased wood.Publication Household Cooking Fuel Choice and Adoption of Improved Cookstoves in Developing Countries : A Review(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06)Improving access to affordable and reliable energy services for cooking is essential for developing countries in reducing adverse human health and environmental impacts hitherto caused by burning of traditional biomass. This paper reviews empirical studies that analyze choices of fuel and adoption of improved stoves for cooking in countries where biomass is still the predominant cooking fuel. The review highlights the wide range of factors that influence households cooking fuel choices and adoption of improved stoves, including socioeconomic (access and availability, collection costs and fuel prices, household income, education and awareness), behavioral (food tastes, lifestyle), and cultural and external factors (indoor air pollution, government policies). The paper also summarizes the evidence on the significant adverse health impacts from exposure to indoor smoke, especially among women and young children. In low-income households, perceived health benefits of adopting improved stoves and financial benefits from fuel savings tend to be outweighed by the costs of improved stoves, even after accounting for the opportunity cost of time spent collecting biomass fuel. The paper identifies knowledge and evidence gaps on the success of policies and programs designed to scale up the adoption of improved cookstoves.Publication Haiti: Strategy to Alleviate the Pressure of Fuel Demand on National Woodfuel Resource(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04)Haiti suffers from a serious deterioration of its natural environment and, in particular, from a heavy pressure on its natural resources. The reasons for this deterioration are multiple (poverty level, demographic pressure, agricultural techniques and insecurity regarding land tenure) and, therefore, go beyond the strict scope of energy. However, the wood-fuel consumption is one of the main factors of this deterioration. On a national scale, about 70 percent of the energy needs are met using firewood and charcoal. Although the local wood-fuel resources have been overexploited for more than 20 years, the price of wood-fuels does not reflect this scarcity phenomenon which constitutes a serious ecological threat at the countrywide level. The household energy sector remains, by far, the main consumer of wood-fuels, in as much as it absorbs 70 percent of the overall supply. However, this sector is characterized by very low efficiency in terms of use outputs.Publication Primary Household Energy for Cooking and Heating in 52 Developing Economies(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)Recent household surveys from 52 developing economies that include questions about energy use show that the most commonly cited primary energy for cooking is wood, followed by gas, natural gas and, where natural gas is not available, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and then by electricity. Biogas use is rare, and the use of ethanol and solar cookers is essentially non-existent. Households in the economies with a very high share of the population relying on clean energy as the primary source for cooking overwhelmingly prefer gas over electricity. In two-thirds of the economies more than half of the rich cook with clean energy, again preferring gas over electricity. As income rises and natural gas infrastructure becomes better established, urban households shift from LPG to natural gas, leaving LPG primarily for rural households. By contrast, in low-income and some lower-middle-income economies even the rich cook primarily with charcoal or kerosene (usually preferring charcoal over kerosene), while LPG is used by some well-off urban households. In one out of every six economies less than one-tenth of the population in the top 20 percent cites clean energy as their primary energy source for cooking. The choice of gas is driven in many instances by historical fuel price subsidy policies, which in some cases have continued to this day. Where natural gas is not available and LPG has not been subsidized but electricity has historically been reliable and cheap, such as in Southern Africa, the rich cook with electricity. Aside from price and supply reliability, community-wide familiarity with a particular technology and fuel, and economies of scale arising from popular use, may be partially driving the pattern of each economy’s showing dominant preference for gas or electricity.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Making Devolution Work for Service Delivery in Kenya(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-02)Kenya adopted a new constitution and began the process of devolution in 2010, ceding many formerly national responsibilities to new county governments. As an institutional response to longstanding grievances, this radical restructuring of the Kenyan state had three continuing main objectives: decentralizing political power, public sector functions, and public finances; ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources among regions; and promoting more accountable, participatory, and responsive government at all levels. The first elections under the new constitution were held in 2013 and led to the establishment of 47 new county governments. Each county government is made up of a county executive, headed by an elected governor, and an elected County Assembly that legislates and provides oversight. Making Devolution Work for Service Delivery in Kenya takes stock of how devolution has affected the delivery of basic services to Kenyan citizens nine years after the “devolution train” left the station. Whereas devolution was driven by political reform, the ensuing institutions and systems were expected to deliver greater socioeconomic equity through devolved service delivery. Jointly coordinated by the government of Kenya and the World Bank, the Making Devolution Work for Service Delivery (MDWSD) study is the first major assessment of Kenya’s devolution reform. The study provides key messages about what is working, what is not working, and what could work better to enhance service delivery based on currently available data. It provides an independent assessment of service delivery performance in five sectors: agriculture, education, health, urban services, and water services. This assessment includes an in-depth review of the main pillars of devolved service delivery: accountability, human resource management, intergovernmental finance, politics, and public financial management. In addition to its findings for the present, the MDWSD study provides recommendations on how Kenya can improve its performance in each of these pivotal areas in the future.Publication Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System : A Handbook for Development Practitioners(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a 'readiness assessment' and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way.Publication Nigeria Development Update, June 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)In 2020, Nigeria experienced its deepest recession in four decades, but growth resumed in the fourth quarter as pandemic restrictions were eased, oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented policies to counter the economic shock. As a result, in 2020 the Nigerian economy experienced a smaller contraction (-1.8 percent) than had been projected when the pandemic began (-3.2 percent). As part of its response, the government carried out several long-delayed policy reforms, often against vocal opposition. Notably, the government (1) began to harmonize exchange rates; (2) began to eliminate gasoline subsidies; (3) started adjusting electricity tariffs to more cost-reflective levels; (4) cut nonessential spending and redirected resources to COVID-19 (coronavirus) responses at both the federal and the state levels; and (5) enhanced debt management and increased public-sector transparency, especially for oil and gas operations. By creating additional fiscal space and maximizing the impact of the government’s limited resources, these measures were critical in protecting the economy against a much deeper recession and in laying the foundation for earlier recovery. However, several critical reforms are as yet incomplete, which threatens Nigeria’s nascent recovery. In the baseline scenario, Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow by 1.8 percent in 2021. Despite the current favorable external environment, with oil prices recovering and growth in advanced economies, reform slippages would hinder the renewed economic expansion and undermine progress toward Nigeria’s development goals. In a risk scenario, in which the government fails to sustain recent macroeconomic and structural reforms, the pace of economic recovery would slow, and GDP growth couldbe just 1.1 percent in 2021.Publication Fiscal Incidence Analysis for Kenya(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-29)Kenya has made satisfactory progress in reducing poverty and inequality in recent years. Economic growth in Kenya between 2005-06 and 2015-16 averaged around 5.3 percent, exceeding the average growth of 4.9 percent observed for Sub-Saharan Africa. This robust economic growth resulted in a reduction in poverty, whether measured by the national or international poverty line. The proportion of the population living beneath the national poverty line fell from 46.8 percent in 2005-06 to 36.1 percent in 2015-16, showing a modest improvement in the living standards of the Kenyan population. Similarly, poverty under the international poverty line of US$ 1.90 a day declined from 43.6 percent in 2005-06 to 35.6 percent in 2015-16. At this level, poverty in Kenya is below the average in sub-Saharan Africa and is amongst the lowest in the East African Community (World Bank, 2018b). However, the proportion of the population living in poverty remains comparatively high in Kenya and the rate at which growth translated into poverty reduction was lower than elsewhere. At twice the average, Kenya’s poverty rate is still high for a lower-middle income country, a group that Kenya joined only in 2015. In addition, the Kenya’s growth elasticity of poverty reduction, the percentage reduction in the poverty rate associated with a one-percent increase in mean per capita income is only 0.57, lower than in Tanzania, Ghana, or Uganda (World Bank, 2018b). This leads to the obvious question of what can be done to make economic growth more pro-poor in Kenya. This study assesses the distributional consequences of Kenya’s system of taxes and transfers, covering 60 percent of revenue and between 25 and 30 percent of government spending. The analysis of fiscal incidence and distributional consequences of Kenya’s tax and transfer system is an important input for designing pro-poor policies and potentially for influencing the rate at which economic growth translates into poverty reduction. In this study, direct taxes and transfers, indirect taxes (VAT and excise duties), as well as public health and education spending are assessed in terms of their distributional impacts. Overall, these taxes and transfers account for about 60 percent of revenue and between 25 and 30 percent of government spending.Publication Managing County Assets and Liabilities in Kenya(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)Public entities around the world possess an enormous volume of assets and wealth, which includes land, buildings, historic sites, parks, and infrastructure networks, among many others. Good management of such assets is a catalyst for accelerating development and expanding services; poor asset management generates enormous losses, including lost opportunities to build wealth. Private enterprises increasingly use computerized systems to manage assets such as fleets and buildings. Many city leaders in developing countries, however, are unaware of asset management or feel they lack the time or money to undertake it. Managing County Assets and Liabilities in Kenya: Postdevolution Challenges and Responses can help them begin or maintain their efforts to manage assets sustainably. This book helps readers understand the basic concept of asset management; explains systems, tools, and procedures; and provides models and guidance. Kenya has achieved much since its 2013 devolution of governance and management to new counties. However, counties, which are the local governments in Kenya, are still working toward establishing systems and procedures, creating asset and liability registers, verifying and valuing assets, using assets strategically, and resolving disputes surrounding inherited assets and liabilities. This book provides glimpses into the Kenyan devolution process and asset transfer challenges, draws lessons, and explores options relevant to both Kenya and other nations. Ample studies discuss various aspects of municipal asset management, such as managing infrastructure, fixed assets, water services, building properties, roads, or fleets. This book is unique among asset management studies in three ways: it discusses all sorts of assets and liabilities and their interlinkages, exemplifies the close connection between financial results and asset management of municipalities, and reveals the political economy challenges in transferring assets and liabilities across public entities.