The cultural barriers to a low-carbon future: a review of six mobility and energy transitions across 28 countries

This review focuses on how culture can complicate attempts at promoting more efficient, more sustainable, and often more affordable forms of mobility as well as energy use in homes and buildings. In simpler terms: it illustrates the cultural barriers to a low-carbon, low-energy future across 28 countries. Rather than focus on energy supply, it deals intently with energy end-use, demand, and consumption. In terms of low-carbon transport and mobility, it examines the cultural barriers to aggressive driving, speeding, and eco-driving; automated vehicles; and ridesharing and carpooling. In terms of cooking and building energy use, it examines the cultural barriers to solar home systems, improved cookstoves, and energy efficient heating. For each case, the review synthesizes a wide range of studies showing that culture can operate as a salient but often unacknowledged barrier to low-carbon transitions as well as sustainability transitions more generally. The paper concludes with recommendations aimed at catalyzing the effectiveness and efficiency with which policymakers, researchers and practitioners are able to research, develop, demonstrate and deploy technologies and policies for a low-carbon transition

Why Do Households Forego High Returns from Technology Adoption - Evidence from Improved Cook Stoves in Burkina Faso

Around 3 billion people in developing countries rely on woodfuels for their daily cooking needs with profound negative implications for their workload, health, and budget as well as the environment. Improved cookstove (ICS) technologies in many cases appear to be an obvious solution. Despite continuous efforts of the international community to disseminate ICS, take up rates in most developing countries are strikingly low. In this paper, we examine the reasons for (non-)adoption of a very simple ICS in urban Burkina Faso. As a first result, we find that ICS users save between 20 and 30 percent of fuels compared to traditional stoves making the investment a very profitable one. Nonetheless, adoption rates are low at a mere 10 percent. It turns out that the major deterrent of adoption are the upfront investment costs - which are much more important than access to information, taste preferences, or the woman's role in the household. These findings suggest that more direct promotion strategies such as subsidies would help the household to overcome its liquidity constraints and hence improve adoption rates.Rund 3 Milliarden Menschen in Entwicklungsländern sind für ihre täglichen Kochbedürfnisse auf Holzbrennstoffe angewiesen. Dies geht einher mit tiefgreifenden negativen Auswirkungen auf individueller Ebene - insbesondere Arbeitsbelastung, Gesundheit und Haushaltsbudget - sowie auf die Umwelt. Verbesserte Herd-Technologien werden vielfach als eine offensichtliche Lösung dieser Problematik angesehen. Trotz beträchtlicher Anstrengungen der internationalen Gemeinschaft verbesserte Kochherden zu vermarkten, sind Verbreitungsquoten in den meisten Entwicklungsländern auffallend gering. In diesem Beitrag werden anhand von Daten aus dem städtischen Burkina Faso mögliche Gründe untersucht, die Haushalte dazu bewegen oder davon abhalten, sich einen verbesserten Kochherd anzuschaffen. Ein erstes Ergebnis der Studie ist es, dass die untersuchten Öfen zwischen 20 und 30 Prozent an Kochbrennstoffen im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Öfen einsparen. Dies hat zur Folge, dass sich der Kauf des Herdes für einen Großteil der Haushalte bereits nach weniger als drei Monaten rentiert. Dennoch verfügen nur 10 Prozent der Haushalte in den Untersuchungsregionen über einen solchen Herd. Eine weiterführende Analyse ergibt, dass die Anfangsinvestitionen in den Kochofen das wohl größte Hindernis darstellt und sich damit als bedeutend wichtiger erweist als der Zugang zu Informationen über verbesserte Kochtechnologien, Geschmackspräferenzen oder die Rolle der Frau im Haushalt. Diese Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass direktere Förderstrategien wie nachhaltige Subventionsmechanismen bei der Überwindung von Liquiditätsengpässe helfen und damit die Verbreitung verbesserter Kochherde befördern würden

A Roadmap for Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment

This document summarizes findings of 18 research studies commissioned across 4 categories (entrepreneurship, farming, wage employment, young women's employment) to find out what works to empower women, for whom (categories of women), and where (country scenarios). The Roadmap is designed to guide investments from private sector and public-private partnerships, and highlights 9 proven, 9 promising, and 6 high-potential interventions to increase women's productivity and earnings in developing countries

“Clean” Cooking Energy in Uganda – technologies, impacts, and key barriers and enablers to market acceleration

The cooking energy mix in Uganda is dominated by unprocessed biomass, with charcoal the next most utilised fuel. “Clean” alternatives either relate to improved biomass cookstoves or switching to “clean” fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), biogas and ethanol. However, access by poorer and rural communities to modern, clean fuel is currently limited by relatively high prices, low demand and unreliable supply; this is of particular importance in Uganda as the main supplies of LPG are imported. Changing to “clean” alternatives can have potential impacts on social and environmental factors, including limiting rates of deforestation, improving health, reducing the costs of cooking, time savings, and cleaner kitchens and cooking vessels. However, empirical evidence of the impact of such technologies, especially on health, remains limited and inconclusive, and is primarily focused on improved biomass stoves. If clean alternatives are to produce impacts they must be used correctly and consistently, and critically, they must come to displace the use of traditional stoves, without 'stacking' of polluting and improved technologies. There was an array of literature on this subject matter. The evidence was relatively strong, particularly related to Uganda and improved cookstoves. However, there was disagreement on the impacts of interventions especially in the field. A number of gaps exist for further and future research including but not limited to: more comprehensive knowledge of the market in Uganda, consumer behaviour, rural segments on less than USD3, switching to cleaner fuels, urban firewood users and the extent of use of improved cookstoves in Ugandan households

Beer, wood, and welfare - The impact of improved stove use among dolo-beer breweries

Local beer breweries in Burkina Faso absorb a considerable amount of urban woodfuel demand. We assess the woodfuel savings caused by the adoption of improved brewing stoves by these micro-breweries and estimate the implied welfare effects through the woodfuel market on private households as well as the environmental effect. We find substantial wood savings among the breweries, 36% to 38% if they fully switch to an improved stove. In absolute amounts, they save about 0.176 kg of fuelwood per litre of dolo brewed. These savings imply huge reductions in CO2-emissions and reduce the overall demand for woodfuel, which is predominantly used by the poorer strata for cooking purposes. We provide estimates for the price decrease that might result from this and show that the urban poor are likely to benefit. Thus, the intervention under study is an example for a green growth intervention with pro-poor welfare gains - something green growth strategies should look for. Copyright

Powerful-synergies: Gender Equality, Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability

This is a collection of evidence-based papers by scholars and practitioners that explore the interconnections between gender equality and sustainable development across a range of sectors and global development issues such as energy, health, education, food security, climate change, human rights, consumption and production patterns, and urbanization. The publication provides evidence from various sectors and regions on how women's equal access and control over resources not only improves the lives of individuals, families and nations, but also helps ensure the sustainability of the environment

Public participation in technological innovation : the case of the Tshulu stove development programme

Abstract: The design of products for developing communities often excludes the end-users in the decision making process. The study aims to investigate public participation and engagement in the design and development of the Tshulu woodstove. Results of this research point to the need for improved communication between citizens and technical experts, as well as for narrowing the gap between the designer and the user by encouraging meaningful engagement and inclusion. Bottom-up approaches ensure sustained participation of the public, in turn increasing a sense of ownership in the product. These results have implications for energy policy and improved cookstove programmes for developing communities

The implementation of decentralised biogas plants in Assam, NE India: the impact and effectiveness of the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme

The Indian Government’s National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP) aims to deliver renewable energy services to households across the country by incentivising the deployment of family-sized (<6m3) anaerobic (biogas) digesters. We investigated how NBMMP policy is implemented at three levels, from government and state nodal agency, via private contractors to households. We analysed the scheme across two districts in Assam, north-east India, interviewing stakeholders in rural households, state and non-state institutions. We found a top-down, supply-side approach which enables central government to set targets and require individual states to deploy the scheme. Participation in the NBMMP was found to deliver improved energy service outcomes to a majority of households that can afford to participate, although the level of knowledge and understanding of the technology amongst users was limited. Improved training of householders, and particularly women, is needed in relation to the maintenance of digesters, feedstock suitability and the environmental and potential livelihood benefits of digestate. A policy revision which highlights the contextual and demand-side issues around adopting the technology, may deliver monetary benefits from market competition and enable development of community-focused microfinance schemes to improve the affordability of biogas systems