Publication: Scaling Up Clean Cooking Solutions: The Context, Status, Barriers and Key Drivers
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2013-09-01
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2017-04-25
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The nexus of improved energy access, direct health benefits and reduced indoor air pollution can be achieved in part through expanding access to clean cookstoves and fuels. This is of particular significance to approximately three billion people, mainly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, who still rely on solid fuels (traditional biomass and coal) for cooking and heating. Large-scale adoption and sustained use of clean cookstoves is not materializing due to a variety of context specific barriers both on the consumer and producer/distributor sides. While financing in terms of a lack of investment and working capital appear to be constraints for producers, lack of information, awareness, and cultural barriers dominate for consumers and should not be underestimated. Addressing these challenges requires a multi-pronged approach across four key drivers that have been identified through reviewing successful programs: awareness raising; markets and preferences; technologies and standards; and innovative financing.
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“Ekouevi, Koffi. 2013. Scaling Up Clean Cooking Solutions: The Context, Status, Barriers and Key Drivers. © International Finance Corporation. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26448 License: CC BY-NC-ND 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 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 Household Energy for Cooking(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2013-07)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.Publication Wood-Based Biomass Energy Development for Sub-Saharan Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09)Nearly half the world's population and about 81 percent of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) households rely on wood-based biomass energy (fuel wood and charcoal) for cooking. This degree of reliance is far greater than in any other region. While the use of biomass fuels in China, India and much of the developing world has peaked or will do so in the near future, SSA's consumption will either remain at very high levels or even grow over the next few decades. 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 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. The initial CSI stocktaking exercise calls for a comprehensive strategy comprising institutional strengthening and building of an enabling policy and regulatory environment, market and business development, and stimulation of household demand, supported by an innovative, results based financing approach.
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Publication Kenya's Strategy to Make Liquefied Petroleum Gas the Nation's Primary Cooking Fuel(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-09-01)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.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.Publication When Winners Feel Like Losers(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2017-06-01)In 2011 the Government of El Salvador implemented a reform to the liquefied gas (LPG) subsidy that increased the welfare of households in all but the top two deciles of the income distribution. However, the reform turned out to be rather unpopular, including among winners. This paper relies on ad hoc household surveys conducted before the implementation and in the following two-and-a-half years to test which factors help explain the puzzle. The analysis uses probit regressions to show that misinformation (a negativity bias by which people with limited information inferred negative consequences), mistrust of the government's ability to implement the policy, and political priors explain most of the (un)satisfaction before implementation. Perceptions improved gradually—and significantly so—over time when the subsidy reception induced households to update their initial priors, although political biases remained significant throughout the entire period. The results suggest several implications with respect to policy reforms in cases where agents have limited information.Publication Residential Market for LPG : A Review of Experience of 20 Developing Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12)Of all the modern fuels available today, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is particularly well suited to domestic cooking and heating uses because of its clean-burning attributes and practical advantages over traditional biomass fuels as well as kerosene. LPG is more convenient in use and acquisition (e.g., no lengthy gathering or onerous bulk purchasing operations as with biomass), safer and cleaner. It has a high calorific value by volume and mass and uses high-efficiency end-use cooking apparatus. Households recognize these advantages and are usually prepared to pay a premium for LPG over other fuels if their incomes are high enough and LPG is available. Switching from traditional biomass fuels and coal to LPG can bring considerable health and environmental; benefits at the local, regional and global levels. Indoor air pollution, which affects mainly women and children, is greatly reduced. Switching to LPG can also reduce deforestation and free up supplies of dung for use as fertilizer and soil improver, enhancing agricultural productivity. The savings in time consumed gathering or acquiring bulk supplies of biomass fuels may allow householders to dedicate this time to pursue more productive activities, thus alleviating poverty. The following provides brief descriptions of the nature and characterization of LPG as well as a typical, generic supply and distribution chain for the product.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.