Séminaire d’économie de Bordeaux

Sébastien Desbureaux

(INRAE)

Keeping Gorillas in the Mist: The Environmental Economics of Accelerating the Adoption of Clean Cooking

Abstract: Wood fuel remains the main cooking fuel for one third of humanity, with important negative consequences for forests, wildlife, and climate change. As access to electricity is steadily increasing, our randomized control trial (n=1500) asks whether new generations of efficient cookers can be promoted, studies the impact of adopting them, and mechanisms to promote their adoption. The study takes place in the rapidly growing city of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where charcoal consumption threatens the protected habitats of thousands of species living in Virunga National Park, including Mountain Gorillas. Our results show that fully subsidizing the initial purchase of an Electric Pressure Cooker (80$)  to the clients of an electricity providers leads to a triple win: $360 savings on cooking for households;  $115 extra earnings from electricity consumption for the electricity provider; 7.5tCO2eq reduced over the 5-year EPC life span per cooker;  and 1 ha of forest saved for each 29 cookers distributed. We further find that subsidizing electricity price and environmental messaging campaigns targeting users further increases usage of the cooker. Our results suggest attaining the goal of affordable and clean cooking for all can be promoted through environmental policies and vertical integration of firms.

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