Mitigating Climate Change through Sustainable Technology Adoption: Insights from Cookstove Interventions
Date
2021-09-28
Authors
Alem, Yonas
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research Consortium
Abstract
Deforestation and burning of forest products to meet cooking needs massively
contribute to global warming. In order to reduce the biomass fuel consumption of
households in developing countries, various improved cookstove (ICS) interventions
were implemented by governments, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and
other stakeholders in the past decades. This paper synthesizes the impact evaluation
literature on the adoption and impact of ICS, and their role in improving household
welfare, while reducing the pressure on forest resources and mitigating emission of
carbon dioxide (CO2). The paper points out five important knowledge gaps, which
future research may address. First, more research is needed on the effectiveness
of different mechanisms that address liquidity constraints, such as stove-for-work
programmes, which some research has already shown are effective in relaxing
households’ liquidity constraints to adopt ICS. Second, in order to improve reliability
of estimates of the impact of ICS, studies should be guided by proper impact evaluation
protocols, such as determining sample size using statistical power analysis. Third,
more research is needed on the effects of ICS beyond fuel and time saving, such as time
allocation and wellbeing of women. Fourth, urban households are under-represented
in stove studies, but more studies on urban households are needed, because they
consume substantial amounts of biomass fuel, most importantly charcoal. Finally, and
most importantly, all existing stove studies exclusively focus on households. Micro,
small and medium-scale enterprises in Africa consume nearly half of the biomass fuel
consumed in the continent. Experimental work on firm energy use behaviour and
transition to cleaner sources is urgently needed. Otherwise, reduction in biomass
fuel use by households may be compensated by increased biomass use by firms.
Description
Keywords
Biomass fuel , Improved cookstoves , RCTs , Causal impact.