Publication: Household Energy for Cooking: Project Design Principles
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2013-07
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2015-08-31
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Reliance on solid fuels for cooking is an indicator of energy poverty. Access to modern energy services - including electricity and clean fuels - is important for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It can also reduce womens domestic burden of collecting fuelwood and allow them to pursue educational, economic, and other employment opportunities that can empower them and lead to increased gender equality. Similarly, the use of clean cooking and heating fuels in efficient appliances can reduce child mortality rates. Without access to modern energy services, the likelihood of escaping poverty is very low. Interventions to improve energy access to the poor have focused mainly on electricity access and have often neglected nonelectricity household energy access. Household energy for cooking in particular has received little policy attention in the overall energy sector dialogue, and consequently its lending volume remains low, in spite of the magnitude of the development challenges it represents. The objective of this note is to assist task teams with broad project design principles related to household energy for cooking. It follows five main reports produced by the World Bank Group over the last three years: (1) Household Cookstoves, Environment, Health, and Climate Change: A New Look at an Old Problem; (2) Household Energy Access for Cooking and Heating: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward; (3) One Goal, Two Paths Achieving Universal Access to Modern Energy in East Asia and Pacific; (4) Wood-Based Biomass Energy Development for Sub-Saharan Africa; and (5) What Have We Learned about Household Biomass Cooking in Central America? These reports make the case for a re-engagement of the World Bank Group in the household energy access sector. This note is organized into two sections: (a) context and background, and (b) project design principles.
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“Ekouevi, Koffi. 2013. Household Energy for Cooking: Project Design Principles. Energy and mining sector board discussion
paper;no. 27. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22569 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Household Energy Access for Cooking and Heating : Lessons Learned and the Way Forward(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012)Half of humanity about 3 billion people are still relying on solid fuels for cooking and heating. Of that, about 2.5 billion people depend on traditional biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, agricultural waste, and animal dung), while about 400 million people use coal as their primary cooking and heating fuel (UNDP and WHO 2009). The majority of the population relying on solid fuels lives in Sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia. In some countries in Central America and in East Asia and the Pacific, the use of solid fuels is also significant. The inefficient and unsustainable production and use of these fuels result in a significant public health hazard, as well as negative environmental impacts that keep people in poverty. Strategies to improve energy access to the poor have focused mainly on electricity access. They have often neglected non electricity household energy access. It is, however, estimated that about 2.8 billion people will still depend on fuel wood for cooking and heating in 2030 in a business-as-usual modus operandi (IEA 2010). The need for urgent interventions at the household level to provide alternative energy services to help improve livelihoods is becoming more and more accepted. This report's main objective is to conduct a review of the World Bank's financed operations and selected interventions by other institutions on household energy access in an attempt to examine success and failure factors to inform the new generation of upcoming interventions. First, the report provides a brief literature review to lay out the multidimensional challenge of an overwhelming reliance on solid fuels for cooking and heating. Second, it highlights how the Bank and selected governments and organizations have been dealing with this challenge. Third, it presents lessons learned to inform upcoming interventions. And finally, it indicates an outlook on the way forward.Publication China : Accelerating Household Access to Clean Cooking and Heating(Washington, DC, 2013-09)The China Clean Stove Initiative (CSI), a collaborative effort of the Chinese government and the World Bank, aims to scale up access to clean cooking and heating stoves for poor, primarily rural households, who are likely to continue using solid fuels beyond 2030. More than half of China's population still relies on solid fuels (coal and biomass) for cooking and heating; many of these households, located mainly in rural areas, are likely to continue using solid fuels in the near future. Switching to modern energy alternatives would be the most effective way to achieve clean cooking and heating solutions and should be encouraged; yet such fuels are more expensive than solid fuels, requiring more costly stoves and delivery infrastructure. Effective strategies to scale up the dissemination of clean burning, fuel-efficient stoves for household cooking and heating can mitigate the health hazards associated with the burning of solid fuels. It is estimated that Household Air Pollution (HAP) from solid fuel use results in more than a million premature deaths each year in China. Scaled-up access to clean and efficient stoves is consistent with China's strategy to promote energy conservation, reduced carbon emissions, and green energy in villages. The China CSI comprises four phases: 1) initial stocktaking and development of the implementation strategy; 2) institutional strengthening, capacity building, and piloting of the strategy; 3) scaled-up program implementation; and 4) evaluation and dissemination of lessons learned. This report will serve as a knowledge base and roadmap to encourage and engage all interested parties in working together on this important agenda. 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Population growth, coupled with strong urbanization dynamics and relative price changes of alternative fuels, offset the important achievements made over the past decade by significant investments in energy access, rural and urban electrification, off-grid energy developments, and the promotion of alternative energy sources. With increasing economic development, the demand for energy is increasing as well and consumers depend on a broader portfolio of energy sources to satisfy growing energy needs. While electricity and other energy sources are needed to satisfy additional energy needs emerging with economic development, a vast majority of Sub-Saharan African consumers continue to use wood based biomass energy for cooking. Especially electricity is not regarded a suitable alternative for cooking given equipment and use costs. Biomass burning in cook stoves also emits black carbon (BC) as part of visible smoke, which is particulate matter that results from incomplete combustion. Climate science now views BC as the second or third largest warming agent after carbon dioxide, alongside methane. In the case of biomass cooking, the warming effects of BC and the cooling effects of organic carbon that is also emitted during the burning appear to be closely balanced. Given the present uncertainty about the net impact, additional research is currently underway. Black carbon has also an impact at the regional level: it accelerates melting of ice and snow, and contributes to regional pollution which can alter climatic conditions and precipitation patterns over a wide area. This paper advocates that any policy reform should entail a combination of clear rules, transparent enforcement, strong incentives and awareness-creation/capacity development. Key stakeholders and the general public need guidance by way of information campaigns, training, and demonstration projects to ensure that awareness-deficits or false perceptions do not curtail policy implementation. The bureaucratic and administrative barriers e.g. overcomplicated forest management planning requirements, complex fiscal systems and land tenure procedures may inhibit development and thus warrant critical reflection. The regulatory framework needs to integrate externalities in order to promote adequate pricing of charcoal, and thus enhance regional economies.Publication Cleaner Hearths, Better Homes : New Stoves for India and the Developing World(New Delhi: Oxford University Press and World Bank, 2012)For people in developed countries, burning fuel wood in an open hearth evokes nostalgia and romance. But in developing countries, the harsh reality is that several billion people, mainly women and children, face long hours collecting fuel wood, which is burned inefficiently in traditional biomass stoves. The smoke emitted into their homes exposes them to pollution levels 10-20 times higher than the maximum standards considered safe in developed countries. And the problem is not out of the ordinary. The majority of people in developing countries at present cannot afford the transition to modern fuels. Today, close to one half of the world's people still depend on biomass energy to meet their cooking and heating needs. This book should be of interest to policymakers and scientists across a broad spectrum of disciplines from health, environment, and economics to sociology, anthropology, and physics. Indeed, the hands of many specialists are required to ensure successful stove programs, which call for social marketing, stove engineering, development of standards, promotion of private and commercial enterprises, and appropriate subsidy schemes. That the book's authors represent diverse disciplines sociology, physics, and forest economics underscores the range of perspectives needed to tackle the issues involved in the commercial promotion of improved stoves. The impetus for writing this book started at the end of a World Bank project on the health implications of indoor air pollution, which coincided with the Government of India's (GoI) cancellation of its 20-year program on improved stoves. The government's decision came as no surprise, given the program's mixed results.
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