Facts on Cooking Energy

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Introduction

The importance of traditional biomass, and the impact of its use, is frequently underestimated. Biomass use affects many aspects of everyday life; the way people cook, their nutritional status, their health, and the workload of women and children. The paragraph "Facts on cooking energy" summarises these aspects, and gives an overview of the beneficial effects of energy-efficient cooking technologies.

In 2000, the UN Millennium Declaration was adopted, which seeks to halve poverty by 2015. Although none of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) specifically addresses cooking energy, its importance was acknowledged in later documents. "Cooking energy and the Millennium Development Goals" gives examples of how the provision of efficient cooking energy systems can contribute to the achievement of the MDGs. "Cooking energy on the international agenda" gives a selection of national and international agreements that mention cooking energy.

In order to increase their impact, the activities of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) centre on just eleven Focal Areas (Schwerpunktbereiche). The paragraph "Cooking energy and focal areas of German Development Cooperation" shows how cooking energy contributes to most of these key areas. Finally, the last paragraph presents a strategy, developed by GTZ HERA, for cooking energy interventions.

Facts on cooking energy

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• Cooking energy accounts for about 90 % of all household energy consumption in developing countries.
• Worldwide, 2.5 billion people use biomass fuels for cooking. These fuels include firewood, charcoal, dung and agricultural residues.
• Every year, the smoke from open fires and traditional stoves kills 1.5 million people. Thus, every 20 seconds a woman or child is dying due to inefficient use of biomass fuel.
• Despite massive efforts aimed at substitution and electrification, the number of people relying on biomass energy is still increasing. It is estimated that by 2030, more than 2.7 billion people will cook with biomass.
• Frequently, biomass fuels are the only available energy source, especially in rural areas. In most Sub-Saharan countries, more than 80 per cent of the population depend on biomass fuels for their daily cooking.
• Biomass fuels are mainly burned on inefficient open fires and traditional stoves.

Disadvantages of biomass

In many cases, the demand for biomass fuels far outstrips sustainable supply. This can contribute to deforestation, land degradation and desertification. Dwindling resources lead to an additional workload for women and children as they have to spend more time searching for firewood, and the fuel that they find is often of a lower grade and thus burns with more smoke and less heat.

Advantages of biomass

• Biomass can be a renewable source of energy if efforts are made to ensure that it is burnt efficiently, and that supply, through planting, meets demand.
• Most regions of the world are able to access some form of biomass fuel. With the right stove, the majority of these fuels can be burned without further processing.
• Usually biomass fuels are cheaper than alternative fuels such as gas, paraffin or electricity and thus are affordable to the poor.

Efficient technologies

• Technologies and techniques for sustainable production and efficient use of biomass energy are available. Further scaling up of these techniques and technologies is needed.
• Biomass fuels will remain the most important source of energy for the next decades. The best way to burn them efficiently and sustainably is the use of improved stoves.
• A well-designed improved household stove can save up to 60 per cent of fuel compared to the traditional three-stone fire.
• Well-designed energy-efficient stoves emit very little smoke, provided that improved efficiency is due in part to improved combustion. A large number of stoves are efficient because of the way the heat is directed at the pot (heat transfer efficiency), rather than by improved combustion (combustion efficiency). It is important to ensure that both combustion efficiency and heat transfer efficiency are improved when designing a stove.
• Improved technologies range from artisanal or factory-produced clay and metal stoves to solar cookers, heat retaining cookers, and stoves using modern biofuels such as plant oil, ethanol or biogas.

Cooking energy and the Millennium Development Goals

The UN Millennium Project seeks to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. The UN Millennium Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly in September 2000 (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/).

Although none of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) specifically address cooking energy, its importance was acknowledged in later documents as follows:

‘Improved energy services – including modern cooking fuels – are necessary for meeting almost all the Goals… The UN Millennium Project proposes that countries adopt the following specific target … by 2015: Reduce the number of people without effective access to modern cooking fuels by 50 percent and make improved cookstoves widely available.’

UNDP UN Millennium Project, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals UNDP 2005:30 (http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/fullreport.htm).

To achieve this goal, every day, an additional 500 000 people have to get access to improved cooking energy services. The sustainable and clean use of biomass energy for cooking contributes directly to achieving all Millennium Development Goals (see Table below). It is thus of high political and social relevance to the development process.

 

During the UN High Level Plenary Meeting in September 2010 a follow-up resolution to the outcome of the Millennium Summit was adopted. In this additional document, several issues relating to energy access and security, clean and renewable energy etc. are set forth, emphazising the importance of energy for sustainable development. Energy related aspects can be found several times in this document, also regarding the preconditions for achievement of some MDGs:

• Energy is referred to in "The way forward: an action agenday for achieveing the MDGs by 2015": §46 emphazises the "importance of addressing energy issues, including access to affordable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability of energy sources and use, as part of global efforts for the achievement of the MDG and the promotion of sustainable development".
• §73 (under MDG 3 on Global Health) makes a commitment to promote global public health for all to achieve the MDGs, welcoming all kinds of initiatives in various sectors, such as energy, in order to reduce maternal, newborn and under-five child deaths.
• MDG 7 on Environmental Sustainability explicitly mentions energy in §77f: "Supporting the implementation of national policies and strategies to combine, as appropriate, the increased use of new and renewable energy sources and low emission technologies, the more efficient use of energy, greater reliance on advanced energy technologies, including cleaner fossil fuel technologies, and the sustainable use of traditional energy resources, as well as promoting access to modern, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy services and enhancing national capacities to meet the growing energy demand, as appropriate, supported by international cooperation in this field and by the promotion of the development and dissemination of appropriate, affordable and sustainable energy technologies and the transfer of such technologies on mutually agreed terms"
• also in MDG 7, in §77k regarding people living in sums, equal access to public services, such as energy, is postulated.
• MDG 8 on a Global Partnership for Development also  refers to energy in §68u:
  “promoting the strategic role of science, technology and innovation in areas relevant for the achievement of the MDGs, in particular agricultural productivity, water management and sanitation, energy security and public health. (…)"
  

Impact of improved household energy provision on the MDGs
Millennium Development Goal		Effect of efficient cooking energy provision	Impacts of efficient cooking energy	Further reading
1	Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty	Production and commercialisation of efficient stoves Reduced fuel demand	Jobs and small business creation, income generation Money savings Preparation of more nutritious food (e.g. beans) more likely, since 95% of staple food must be cooked
2	Achieve universal primary education	Children spend less time collecting wood Less fuelwood costs for school feeding programmes Less respiratory infections & burns	Children have more time to go to school More children attending school get a warm meal Less time off from school through illness	Fact Sheet Education and Household Energy
3	Promote gender equality and empower women	Training women in commercialisation and production of stoves Time spent gathering firewood and cooking is reduced Improved kitchen conditions for the woman	Women gain self-confidence and improve their status in the community by becoming entrepreneurs Women have more time to dedicate to educational, economic and leisure activities Women’s status within the family unit is improved by better working conditions	Gender, Poverty and Cooking Energy within Local and Global Contexts   Factsheet: Gender Equality and Infrastructure
4,5,6	Reduce child mortality, improve maternal health & combat diseases	Less emissions of particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO) Fire is shielded	Reduced risk of respiratory diseases and eye infections, especially in women, and in children under five years Less burns
7	Ensure environmental sustainability	Less pressure on forest resources Less burning of dung Less CO2 emissions	Less deforestation, and avoided costs for afforestation Less land degradation as dung can be used as fertilizer Climate protection
8	Develop a global partnership for development	A declaration at the World Summit on Sustainable Development committed to urgent future action on the development and promotion of renewable energy technologies through partnership initiatives

Cooking energy on the international agenda

Cooking energy is seldom a priority on the international agenda, despite references to it in international and national agreements. This section highlights some key documents that illustrate why cooking energy should command more effort by the international community. 

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

The „Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves“ was presented in New York in September 2010 in the margins of the UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals. The Alliance’s goal ‘100 by 20’ calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.
The Alliance is going to work with private, public, and non-profit partners. Founding partners are i.e. the governments of the US, Germany, Norway and Peru, Shell, Morgan Stanley, WHO, UNEP and several other organisations.
Its aim is to “save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and combat climate change” by creating a thriving global market. The Alliance promotes major public awareness campaigns and the establishment of industry standards worldwide. Furthermore, they want to support the development of local and international markets for clean cookstoves and fuels, and fund further research.

For further information visit: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves http://cleancookstoves.org/

Ecowas White Paper for a Regional Policy

Ecowas White Paper for a Regional Policy: Geared toward Increasing Access to Energy Services for Rural and Peri-Urban Populations in order to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (2005)
This ambitious White Paper, adopted in 2006, explicitly refers to cooking energy:
‘The objective for 2015 is for all of the population to have access to a modern or improved cooking service. This may be obtained through:

• Access to modern fuels – which requires, in the case of LPG, that households buy a gas stove and canister.
• Improved biomass stoves, in conjunction with the construction of chimneys to reduce indoor air pollution. Where biomass is used, biomass production must be sustainable, using sustainable energy crops. This entails…carrying out in-depth reform of the forestry and rural sectors.’

The white paper aims at prioritising access to energy in the national PRSPs of the West African member states.

Download White Paper (2005, UNDP)

Johannesburg Plan of Implementation - World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002)

The Plan of Implementation (WSSD) confirms the Millennium Goals of 2000 and outlines a roadmap for putting them into action. The Plan promotes the substantial increase of the global share of renewable energy ‘with a sense of urgency’ rather than directly referring to household energy, but it repeatedly emphasises the importance of energy in facilitating the eradication of poverty. The plan demands joint action to improve access to renewable, sustainable and clean energy services, their efficient use and the introduction of new or improved technologies (e.g. Chapter II Poverty Eradication, paragraph 8).

Program of action 2015

The Program of action 2015 was passed by the German Federal Government in 2001. It describes the contributions made by Germany to reach the Millennium Goals.

Paragraph 3.6 (Ensuring Access to Vital Resources) stresses the importance of sustainable energy policies. Special emphasis is put on those dealing with energy efficiency and renewable energies for reducing poverty. The German government commits itself to supporting its partner countries with regard to energy generation and energy supplies for poor rural areas. These locations are remote from the national grid and thus require renewable energy sources (e.g., biomass, solar energy, wind) and an enabling environment to facilitate poor people's access to efficient, grid-based electricity.

Program of the action 2015 (2001) GTZ-link

UN Convention to Combat Desertification

The UNCCD, which came into force in 1996, emphasises the importance of the efficient use of energy, including the promotion of alternative sources to reduce dependency on wood fuels (UNCCD). The use of efficient cookstoves reduces the stresses on fragile ecosystems and thus creates positive impacts, such as reduced erosion and improved soil fertility. Many National Action Programmes (e.g. Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia) consider the over exploitation of wood for fuel as one of the major causes of deforestation and land degradation. Therefore they promote the introduction of energy-saving stoves, the sustainable use and production of wood fuels, renewable energy sources other than wood, and fuel switching.

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is a comprehensive plan of action to be adopted globally, nationally and locally by organizations within the UN, and by governments and major groups in every area which experience human impact on the environment.

Sustainable access to energy and its efficient use plays a role in several chapters of Section II of the Agenda. These chapters relate to the conservation and management of resources for development (especially chapters 9, 11, 14).
Download of the Agenda 21 (UN)

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Household energy programmes are linked to the UNFCCC through actions to conserve of forests and promote renewable energy sources. The convention entered into force in 1994. The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005, is a supplement to this treaty.

Download of the Kyoto Protocol (UN)

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP)

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) describe a country's macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes over a time horizon of at least three years. They are aimed at promoting a wide spectrum of growth initiatives and poverty reduction, and identify needs for external financing and major sources of financing. The papers are oriented towards achieving the MDGs. They are prepared by countries through a participatory process involving both domestic stakeholders and external development partners, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. PRSPs are updated every three years by annual progress reports. They are a necessary prerequisite for debt relief.

World Bank: PRSP Sourcebook

The PRSP Sourcebook (World Bank) assists countries in preparation of poverty reduction strategies. Annex Q ‘Energy: Technical Note’ provides a suggested structure for presenting energy/poverty linkages and sector goals in preparing a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Especially under the sections ‘Social Sector Development’, and ‘Natural Resources and the Environment’, the role of firewood for cooking is highlighted. Gender aspects, management of forest resources and access to energy are the core issues highlighted in respect of cooking energy, and indicators such as availability and costs of improved cookstoves, and time collecting firewood are given. Potential energy strategies, include promotion of improved stoves through micro credit schemes, and policies for sustainable forest use and management by communities, are discussed.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) by country

A recent study by UNDP in 2007 (Energizing Poverty Reduction) examines to what degree energy-poverty dynamics are reflected in the current policies and plans set forth in national poverty reduction strategies.
http://www.energyandenvironment.undp.org

Cooking energy on the national agenda

Peru: The campaign „Half a million improved cooking stoves for a smoke free Peru“ (“Medio Millón de Cocinas Mejoradas: Por un Perú sin Humo”) was launched in June 2009. The partnership is formed by public and private institutions, such as the Presidency, several Ministries, regional and local governments, GTZ, private companies, universities and NGOs. Currently, 50 % of the people in Peru use traditional biomass for cooking. The goal until 2011 is to install 500,000 stoves. For stoves to be considered as improved stoves and to be disseminated as part of the campaign they must meet certain quality standards: fast cooking time, energy efficiency, carbon emissions, security and acceptance by the population. All the stoves boil 5 litres of water within half an hour and reduce the contamination in the kitchen by up to 90 %.
The objectives of the campaign are:

• provide a framework to facilitate the inclusion and strengthening of public, private and international cooperation initiatives and partnerships;
• facilitate coordination, exchange of experiences and technical assistance strategies, management, logistics, processes, models of intervention, monitoring and technology;
• ensure quality and proper use of improved stoves certified in the process.

As of September 2010, there were 112,000 stoves installed.
For more information and results: http://www.cocinasmejoradasperu.org.pe

Cooking energy and focal areas of German Development Cooperation

Access to modern cooking energy contributes to all of the priority sectors of German Development Cooperation.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) will focus its cooperation in the future on the following sectors: education, health, rural development, good governance and sustainable economic development.
Clean and efficient cooking energy specifically contributes to these sectors the following way:

Education – particularly basic education

• An increase in the numbers of women and children with a basic education is promoted through:
  - Decreasing the workload of women and children, leading to higher attendance and less fatigue, facilitates learning at school.
  - Reducing the time spent on fuel collection and cooking, leaving more time for formal and informal education.
  - Healthy children do not miss out on education, so the cycle of poverty can be broken through better qualifications in the next generation.
  
• A full belly learns better than an empty one: school feeding programs can provide more food or better quality food if they save on fuel expenses.
  

• Increased awareness about cooking energy in particular, and renewable energy in the broader sense:
  - Integrating cooking energy information into school curricula, thereby educating more children directly, and indirectly sensitising parents and neighbours about cooking energy issues.
  - Increasing knowledge and awareness about environmental, health and economic issues by instigating cooking energy awareness campaigns.
  

Health – including family planning & HIV/Aids

Every year almost two billion people die due to diseases caused by Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) and substantial numbers of children suffer serious burns. The use of clean burning stoves leads to:

• A reduction in mortality and morbidity, especially among women and children, through:
  - A reduction of respiratory diseases.
  - A reduction of eye diseases.
  - Less health hazards for pregnant women and infants.
  - Relief for HIV/Aids patients and families through reduced respiratory ailments, improved nutrition and hot water for hygiene purposes.
  - Reduced risk of accidental burns especially for children through provision of safer stoves and kitchens.
  

• Healthy people are generally more productive, enabling some people to break the vicious circle of poverty.
  
• Children suffering respiratory ailments due to IAP are a financial burden, particularly in female-headed households, as women have to care for their children rather than earning income, and they have to find money for medication.
  
• With efficient stoves families have more energy available for the same amount of fuel. This extra energy can be used for boiling water to remove pathogens.
  

Rural Development - Integrated approaches

• Access to affordable and reliable cooking energy allows for rural development activities such as:
  - income generation in rural areas: If people spend less time for collecting fuels and cooking, they are able to spend time for productive activities. New jobs are created in rural areas by decentralized production of efficient cooking stoves.
  - improving living standards in rural areas: money saved on fuel is used for education and convenience goods.
  - improving health in rural areas: People who are less effected by smoke are more likely to work and foster rural development.
  - improving food security in rural areas: Since 90 % of all daily food requires energy (cooking, baking, and drying), and energy efficient stoves can save between 40 and 80 % of fuel, increasing fuel availability for food preparation can facilitate more regular and nutritious meals, especially for families coping with fuelwood shortages.
  - improving levels of basic educational: In rural areas time and forces saved through improved cooking stoves enable especially children to spend more time for their education.
  
• Access to affordable and reliable cooking energy also allows for conservation and sustainable utilisation of natural resources:
  - it avoids deforestation, soil degradation and erosion
  - use of dung as fertilizer on fields instead of as a fuel.
  - re-afforestation measures to support sustainable wood fuel supply, such as by planting multi-purpose trees for fuelwood, fruit production and animal fodder
  - introduction of sustainable forest management systems as source of income
  - encouraging the shift to alternative renewable cooking fuels (green fuels), such as plant oils, ethanol, and solar

Good governance - Democracy, Civil Society, Public Services

• Improvement of women’s working conditions and their status and role as stove users and producers, both within the family and the community through:
  - reducing their daily workload
  - increasing their participation and decision-making power
  - ownership of technologies, through improved equipment and know-how
  - income generation through production of cooking energy technologies.
  
• Political participation of the poor can increase. 
  
• Decentralised provision of basic energy services empowers community government structures, which in turn promote sustainable cooking energy supplies and efficient energy use.

Sustainable Economic Development

• Establishment of new market opportunities for energy efficient technologies, thus creating additional business opportunities in stove production and sales for both men and women.
  
• Improved infrastructure through better access to affordable basic energy services enhances small business development.
  
• A decrease in the money spent of fuel leads to an increased share of the household budget available for productive use for income generation.
  
• Efficient stoves save time which is used in many cases in a productive way: for food production in gardens and on farm land, food processing, and for other income generating activities (such as poultry raising or establishing a tree nursery).
  
• Small restaurants save a lot of money using energy-saving stoves. This money can be invested into the restaurant, improving food quality or simply lead to more income.
  
• Food processing using energy efficient technologies (like solar dryers) increases agricultural value chains and income generation.
  
• Re-afforestation measures and sustainable wood fuel production can be an additional source of income for farmers.

Access to energy contributes to reducing poverty in a sustainable manner and therefore helps to reach the MDGs. Especially efficient cooking stoves provide access to modern energy to the most vulnerable people worldwide.
Creating local markets for efficient cooking stoves leads to structural changes within the region, but it also affects global challenges. Increasing energy efficiency reduces carbon emissions and saves fuels to prolong environmental resources worldwide.

For more information on the priority areas and the promotion of renewable energy for development of the BMZ see: Issus on Energy, on Biomass.

Interventions to ensure access to sustainable and affordable cooking energy

More than 80% of cooking energy comes from biomass that has been traditionally produced in a non-sustainable manner, and is then used very inefficiently. Strategies to improve this situation are aimed at both the modernisation of the traditional biomass energy sector (supply and demand), and the promotion of fuel switching to non-biomass fuels.

This leads to three key areas of intervention for cooking energy
A) Introducing and scaling-up the use of improved cookstoves
B) Increasing wood fuel supply through afforestation (woodlots), sustainable forest management and efficient charcoal production
C) Introducing alternative cooking fuels and stoves; fuel switching away from traditional wood fuels

The way in which these interventions are applied is specific to each context. From a national energy perspective, all three areas of intervention should be addressed, and should complement each other, whereas a development project or programme might decide on just one or two strategies. The next paragraph provides some facts and illustrative examples that might help to select interventions.

Intervention A: Introducing and scaling-up the use of improved cookstoves

Convincing factors

• Energy efficient stoves save 40-80% of firewood and charcoal, compared to the traditional cooking systems
• Technologies have been developed that provide efficient and near-smokeless stoves for all income groups.
• Experience in cookstove projects has grown substantially over the last few years. For example, between 2004 and 2008, more than 400 000 stoves have been introduced to the market through the efforts of GTZ and its partners.
• Based on this experience, the approach to large-scale implementation of cookstove dissemination has been improved. As an example, since 2005, more than 250 000 households in Uganda have started to use energy-saving rocket stoves. This kind of dissemination rate has never before been reached in any African country in such a short period of time.

• Project costs to provide access to improved cookstoves are less than 7 € per person. Once a critical mass is reached, it can cost as little as 2 € per stove (around $3US), as in the case in Uganda. This makes cookstove projects a cost effective means to improve people’s quality of life for relatively little money.
• Overseas development assistance, or national public sector investment, is needed to support the scaling up in use of improved cookstoves. Cost-Benefit Analyses have indicated that such investments pay off. Further, improved stoves contribute to six out of the eight MDGs.
• Improved stove projects fit into many focal areas of technical assistance.
• Each improved stove saves around 1.5 to of carbon dioxide per year, thus making a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation. Traditional energy consumption is responsible for 1-3% of all human generated global warming, 1-5% of all CH4 emissions and 6-14% of all CO emissions are caused by traditional fuel burning (Smith 1994; Holdren/Smith 2000). Improved stoves are now eligible under Clean Development Mechanism.

Limiting factors

• Changing traditional habits, such as cooking, needs time. Projects must be of at least five years duration, and must be sure that there are committed partners to continue the work once the project is complete.
• Promoting improved cookstoves is not a very glamorous topic. This makes it difficult to advocate for funding, partnerships, commitments etc.
• Creating a sustainable market for cookstoves needs public information and awareness campaigns and thus needs national partners from the public sector (health, education) to support campaigns. It may take a long time to convince partners to take over this responsibility.
• The introduction of improved stoves needs professional guidance, but there is a shortage of experts, especially in stove technology development and capacity building.

Intervention B: Increasing wood fuel supply through afforestation (woodlots), sustainable forest management and efficient charcoal production

Those projects focusing on the supply side will need to address issues of sustainable forest management, fuelwood plantations, and improved charcoal production.

Positive factors

•  In many countries, management responsibility for forests that were previously state-owned is increasingly devolved to local communities. Decentralisation and privatisation of forest lands, or the rights to use such lands, and structural reform in the way the forestry sector is administered, has created an enabling framework for sustainable woodfuel supply, rural development and poverty alleviation.
• Decentralisation and devolution processes increasingly define land tenure agreements clearly, thereby providing incentives for forest management.
• Tools and instruments have been developed to assess the dynamics of sustainable fuelwood supply at national level, through national biomass strategies, and at sub-national levels through woodfuel supply master plans.
•  Experiences (in sharing both power and obligations) between government agencies and non-state actors are showing positive results.
• Functional institutional frameworks, at village level, to oversee planning, implementation, and monitoring, are pivotal to specifying the responsibilities of each and every party within the local management structure.
• Experiences in developing short and simple forest management plans, which reflect the experience and expectations of the local community vis-à-vis their forest, foster local ‘ownership’.
• Instruments to effect payments for environmental services (contribution to climate, biodiversity) of forest cover are increasingly on national and international agendas (e.g. REDD).
• Improved charcoal kilns can save more than 50% of the wood feedstock needed by traditional kilns to obtain the same amount of charcoal.
• Stationary low-cost retort kilns allow cleaner charcoal-making, by using the heat produced through burning the harmful methane gas, considerably reducing emissions and lower running costs.

Limiting factors

• Woodfuel is not recognized as a modern energy carrier, and is thus neglected in national energy policies.
• Dispersed administrative responsibilities in relation to fuel-wood supply and demand, along with weak inter-agency coordination, negatively affect policy coherence and the practical implementation of strategies and master plans.
• Wood-fuel will continue to be underpriced as long as open access is exploited. Production costs of woodfuel are not reflected in their selling costs, and lead to wasteful and inefficient production and consumption.
• Substantial initial investments are necessary to foster the establishment of plantations (which may cost up to 250 $/ha), sustainable forest management, and/or the dissemination of improved kilns.
• The charcoal business is dominated by a very small number of sellers. Profits are usually concentrated in the hands of a few intermediaries, engaged as transport agents or wholesalers. Only marginal returns (< 20 %) flow to the charcoal maker.
• Forests allocated to local users are often overexploited, leaving communities for a long time without economic returns.
• Forest services and communities are sometimes not competent to fulfil their new roles, if managerial and technical capacities are lacking.

Intervention C: Introducing alternative cooking fuels and stoves; fuel switching away from traditional wood fuels

Planning projects that require users to adopt alternative fuels is very difficult to achieve as behavioural changes are complex, and the approach is limited by the availability and affordability of alternative fuels and technologies.

Positive factors

• Partially or completely switching to alternative fuels (such as solar, LPG and biogas) reduces fuelwood demand, and can reduce the pressure on wood resources.
• Use of alternative fuels may reduce the workload of women and children, because less fuelwood (or none) has to be collected. The time saved can be used for other activities, including additional income generation.
• In urban areas, where fuel has to be bought, fuel switching (especially to solar cooking) can ease the household budget.
• The use of clean-burning fuels reduces indoor air pollution and provides considerable health benefits for women and children. Currently, each day, cooking smoke from kitchen stoves is responsible for around 2500 deaths of children under five years.

Limiting factors

• Cooking traditions may prevent fuel switching. One reason why the introduction of solar cookers was of limited success in India is that cooking is done in private, and people refused to cook outside.
• Any new fuel must be perceived to be more convenient than the traditional fuel it replaces; this is not always the case. The success will depend on a number of factors, such as the way it handles, whether stove is suitable for the preparation of traditional dishes, speed of cooking etc.
• Frequently switching to alternative fuels requires some financial investment (solar cooker, LPG-bottle) and/or skilled labour (biogas). Such investments and skills may not be available, especially in rural areas.
• Particularly in rural areas, the supply chain for fuels (such as LPG) may not be assured, households may not be able to afford fuel (there is less available cash in rural areas), and fuelwood may be collected free of charge.
• To run a biogas plant efficiently, a minimum quantity of dung from cattle, and/or other organic wastes, is required. This can exclude poor families from this source of energy, especially the landless.