# **Challenges in Assessing the Costs of Household Cooking Energy in Lower-Income Countries**

## **1.  Introduction**

Access to modern forms of energy like electricity and natural gas is particularly limited in low income developing countries (UNDP and WHO, 2009), and about two-fifths of the human population still relies on solid cooking fuels combusted in their homes (Grieshop et al., 2011; IEA, 2012; Jeuland and Pattanayak, 2012; Jeuland et al., 2015).<sup>1</sup> Improving access to affordable, reliable and safe forms of modern energy services has become a priority in efforts to reduce poverty and promote economic progress (UNDP, 2005; WHO, 2006; UNDP and WHO, 2009; UNIDO, 2009; AGECC, 2010; World Bank and GACC, 2015). To that end, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include three energy targets, to be met by 2030: (1) ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, (2) increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, and (3) double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency (see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg7). The Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative (www.se4all.org) is promoting diffusion of modern energy services in developing countries to meet these goals.

There are several widely recognized reasons for reducing dependence on solid cooking fuels like fuelwood and increasing access to cleaner and improved cooking fuels and technologies. They include greater household convenience; reduced exposure to severe health threats from indoor air pollution; reduced greenhouse gases from lower emissions of black carbon; and the potential for reduced pressures on standing forests, including lower net releases of carbon dioxide from forest degradation.

Against these benefits, however, are considerations related to the cost of providing cleaner and improved cooking energy and devices. Malla and Timilsina (2014) survey the determinants of demands for different cooking fuels and associated cooking technologies, including fuel and cookstove costs. Energy sources such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas and gridsupplied electricity require major public infrastructure investments or costly supply chain development, and often more expensive stoves.<sup>2</sup> A study by IIASA’s Global Energy Assessment estimated that for universal access to modern energy by 2030, including electricity grid connections and improved access to clean cooking fuels, $US30 billion to US$41 billion would need to be invested annually (GEA, 2012). While technologies are improving, without (and maybe even with) expanded policies for increasing use of modern cooking energy, the use of traditional biomass fuels by many people will continue for many years (IEA, 2006; 2014).

One key aspect of moving more rapidly away from traditional cooking methods is effectively “pricing in” all the benefits and costs of cleaner and improved cooking. Inclusive measures of the <u>social costs of alternative stove-and-fuel combinations for household cooking, capturing both costs</u>

> 1  As of 2016/2017, the World Bank classifies low-income economies as those with a gross national income (GNI) per capita, calculated using the Atlas method, of $1,025 or less in 2015; lower middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $1,026 and $4,035; upper middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $4,036 and $12,475; high-income economies are those with a GNI per capita of $12,476 or more..

> 2 Cooking with off-grid electricity is in principle possible, but devices for doing so (including storing sufficient electricity to provide the heat required) are not yet practical.

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