Send link
IIASA and VTT: Subsidies and financing could change cooking fuel use in India
27.09.2010
Providing government subsidies for purchasing cooking fuel, as well as making
finance available for buying related appliances, could move the rural poor in
India from heavy dependence on polluting biomass fuels to more efficient and
cleaner combusting LPG fuel. Such subsides are economically justifiable
because they could increase labor productivity and nourish economic
development among India’s rural poor.
These are some of
the conclusions of a new study published in Energy Policy (October 2010) by
researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA), Austria, and the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. (IIASA's
press release on 23 Sept. 2010)
The study, noting that improving access to affordable modern energy is
critical to improving living standards in the developing world, focuses on the
rural poor in India and looked at strategies for ending “energy poverty.”
The
study is the first to break down the different cooking fuels used in India by
factoring in both income and location. By examining ten categories of cooking
fuel users, from the very poorest in rural regions, to the wealthiest in the
cities, the scientists were able to model how changes in government policies
could alter fuel use patterns in the population. Specifically, the authors
said they were able to “analyze effective policy choices to improve the
penetration of modern cooking fuels among the poor.”
Currently
in India the rural population relies largely on traditional biomass fuels,
primarily firewood, animal and agricultural residues. These fuels are not
only inefficient as energy sources, they take time to gather, emit harmful
particulates, and their extensive use can result in deforestation. The study
found that biomass is the fuel of choice among poor urban dwellers as well,
but as their income increases urban dwellers switch first to kerosene and then
to LPG, or liquefied petroleum gas.
Using a mathematical
model developed at IIASA called MESSAGE-Access that looks at both patterns of
fuel use and economic strategies for changing those patterns, the team found
that improving financing for the appliances needed to use LPG, combined with a
small LPG subsidy for the fuel itself, could mean “the whole population might
be prompted to switch to LPG.” By doing nothing and letting the current
consumption continue, the number of people using traditional biomass would
rise dramatically over the next decade.
While promoting the
widespread adoption of LPG as a fuel source might seem odd at a time when the
world is shifting to a low-carbon economy, the researchers say, the emissions
from LPG would be minor compared to current total emissions from India. The
authors also note that, the shift from cooking with traditional fuels to
modern fuels will have a substantial effect on the lives of over 700 million
inhabitants in 2020, and is likely to be an important precondition for the
improvement of health and the eradication of poverty among these households.
Economic
development and the adoption of modern cooking fuels go hand in hand, the
study concludes, “and it is hard to imagine improving one without improving
the other.”
The methodology applied in the study has
been substantially expanded and adapted to analyze energy poverty in other
regions of the world, this broader analysis is a component of the IIASA
coordinated Global Energy Assessment*.
The study is timely as
world leaders meet in New York this week to discuss progress on the Millennium
Development Goals, where poverty reduction and access to clean, affordable,
and reliable energy sources are high on the agenda.
IIASA
scientists Volker Krey, Shonali Pachauri, and Keywan Riahi co-authored the
study with principal investigator Tommi Ekholm, the VTT Technical Research
Center of Finland and the Helsinki University of Technology.
Reference:
Ekholm, T., Krey, V., Pachauri, S., Riahi, K: Determinants of household energy
consumption in India, Energy Policy 38 (10) pp. 5696-5757.
For
more information or interviews contact:
Shonali Pachauri:
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Tel: +43 (0)
2236 807 475 E-mail: pachauri (at ) iiasa.ac.at
Keywan
Riahi:International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Tel: +43
(0) 2236 807 491 E-mail: riahi (at) iiasa.ac.at
Tommi Ekholm:
VTT Technical Research Center of Finland,Tel: +35 8-40-775 4079, E-mail:
tommi.ekholm (at) vtt.fi
Leane Regan: IIASA, Tel: +43 (0)
2236 807 316, Mob: +43 664 443 0368; regan (as) iiasa.ac.at
About
IIASA:
IIASA is an international scientific institute that
conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic,
technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our
findings provide valuable options to policy makers to shape the future of our
changing world.
*About the Global Energy Assessment (GEA):
Coordinated by IIASA and involving over 450 energy researchers and experts
across government, industry and research, the GEA has assessed the inter
linkages between all energy related areas in the developed and developing
world and will provide options to help decision makers address issues of
energy sustainability, and importantly access. The final assessment will be
published in early 2011.
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ENE/GEA/index.html
IIASA
is independent and funded by scientific institutions in Africa, the Americas,
Asia, and Europe. www.iiasa.ac.at