Methods for Identifying Options and Opportunities for a Larger Scale Transition to Cleaner Household Energy

Meeting the growing demand for clean and safe household energy in developing countries is one of the foremost challenges of our time and has direct implications for livelihoods, health and environmental sustainability at the local, regional and global levels. Globally, we are witnessing a renewed effort to tackle this issue, reflected by the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and, at the national level, programmes such as the Indian National Biomass Cookstove Initiative.  The potential for a large scale transition away from the traditional use of biomass for cooking is now greater than ever. For this transformation to occur, and be sustainable, it is crucial that socioeconomic drivers and dynamics at the household level, as well as within the local biomass energy economy, are clearly understood. The Stockholm Environment Institute, together with partners in East Africa and South Asia, is engaged in research to better understand cooking practices and decision making about household energy to identify how opportunities might be created for supporting communities to shift to cleaner energy use. A range of methodologies are being applied and the findings are being used to identify some basic parameters for cookstove programs to support policy makers and practitioners to design and implement household energy programmes that make sense to the target communities.