23

# **Summary and Concluding Observations**

Stacking of electricity and fuels is common in many countries, resulting in as many as 158 distinct patterns of household energy use identified in one country studied. Because the recall period for expenditures on energy is almost always one month, use of some forms of energy and especially LPG is not necessarily accurately captured. Asking about primary sources of energy for lighting and cooking is important and informative but reveals little about multiple fuel use. To understand the degree of fuel stacking, adding one more question on all forms of energy used may provide valuable information without adding an undue burden on data collection. For example, the question about the primary source of energy for cooking may be followed immediately by a question about which energy items in the list of options for cooking had been used by the household in the recent past, perhaps covering the previous 12 months to catch seasonality.

Almost all LPG users also use electricity. There are several reasons. First, the absence of grid electricity is emblematic of inadequate infrastructure in general. Reliable LPG supply requires connection to paved roads, but those living in areas without grid electricity are less likely to be living near well-connected paved roads and hence less likely to find LPG outlets nearby. Those not using electricity tend to be poorer, again making them less likely to use LPG. In addition, households prioritize electricity consumption over cooking fuels (Kojima 2021a) so that those who can afford LPG are likely to choose to pay for electricity first before adopting LPG. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where electricity and LPG may become two main energy sources for achieving universal access, expansion of access to LPG will likely go hand in hand with expansion of reliable electricity services.

More than half of the population in all but five of the 24 countries studied used wood, charcoal, kerosene, and other solid fuels as primary cooking fuels, with wood and charcoal most frequently cited. A recent analysis of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys found that one form of energy dominated clean cooking energy and there was no even split among two or more options, except in Kazakhstan (Kojima 2021c). This study on Sub-Saharan Africa similarly found that either LPG or electricity overwhelmingly dominated clean cooking energy selection in every country except Tanzania. Unlike other regions of the world with natural gas for urban households, where rural households may cook with LPG in the absence of natural gas pipelines or reliable electricity and urban households cook with natural gas or electricity, the clean cooking fuel use patterns of urban and rural households were similar in Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, if urban households did not cook with LPG and used electricity instead, rural households did not cook with LPG either.

Averaged across all households, spending on electricity far exceeded that on LPG with the exception of Kenya, Lesotho, and Sudan. This pattern would be consistent with electricity being prioritized before LPG. Total spending on household fuels excluding gasoline and diesel exceeded 8 percent in three countries: The Gambia, Malawi, and Uganda, and all on account of expenditures on charcoal and firewood. To the extent that firewood may not have been purchased and spending instead represents the imputed values of collected firewood, these expenditures would not represent cash layouts, thereby making comparison with the 5 percent threshold for affordability more ambiguous. Imputed values are expected to be more common in rural areas, such as rural Uganda where spending on firewood alone amounted to 6.6 percent, consisting of 5.8 percent by the non-poor but as much as 9.0 percent by the rural poor.

One interpretation of the findings in this study is that once a critical mass of LPG users is reached— Figure 8 may suggest half the population—adoption of LPG as the primary source of energy for cooking by those using LPG is more likely. Of the 24 countries sampled, there were 12 countries in which more