Household dependence on solid cooking fuels in Peru: An analysis of environmental and socioeconomic conditions

Highlights

• Solid fuel dependence is lower in Peru’s non-coastal regions and the capital.

• Elevation, forest cover, rural population and poverty increase regions’ solid fuel use.

• Female literacy, mobile and electricity access reduce solid fuel dependence.

• In contrast to skilled occupations, female employment in domestic jobs boosts solid fuel use.

• Areas with significant indigenous populations have greater solid fuel dependence.

Abstract

Solid fuel use is linked with adverse effects on the environment and human health. Yet, solid fuels remain an important energy source for households in developing countries. Even when country-level dependence on solid fuels is modest, there is often significant variation in within-country patterns of solid fuel use. This study examines a range of environmental and socioeconomic conditions to understand the relationship between them and household energy use within a country. While our results are derived from a study of regional patterns of solid fuel dependence in Peru, the contribution of this study is broad: variables that we include in our models of households’ fuel choice decisions are likely to shape such decisions in most developing countries. Our findings indicate that environmental conditions, such as elevation and forest cover, are associated with solid fuel use. Socioeconomic factors, including urbanization, poverty and female literacy, are similarly important. In addition, we identify nuanced links between types of female employment and indigenous population, on the one hand, and solid fuel use, on the other.

Introduction

Energy access, for all households, is a fundamental component of development: the United Nations General Assembly included universal access to “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy” as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015. Dependence on solid fuels in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) impedes this goal, creating a source of household air pollution that harms the health of women and children (Rafaj et al., 2018). In addition, reliance on firewood contributes to deforestation, reduces countries’ ability to address climate change, and increases landslide and flood risks (Bhattacharjee and Behera, 2018). In LMICs, energy transitions from solid fuels to modern energy are challenging, especially among residents of rural and lower-income areas, which tend to have more limited access to clean energy sources (Uddin and Taplin, 2015; McLean et al., 2019).

The complexity of the fuel transition process and the wide variety of its implications mean that a study of solid fuel dependence contributes not only to our understanding of causes in fuel transition, but also to developing appropriate policies, which will have both environmental and health benefits, while reducing economic and social costs of fuel transition for more vulnerable social groups (Rao et al., 2013). Perera (2016) concludes that solid fuel use “inflicts a multitude of serious health and developmental harms in children through its emissions of toxic particles and gases and carbon dioxide (CO₂), a co-pollutant that is a major driver of climate change” (Perera, 2016, p. 141). One approach to addressing this problem is implementation of various engineering solutions, such as improved cookstoves (Puzzolo and Pope, 2017). A second approach is to create national programs (e.g., subsidy or consumer finance through loans) that incentivize the use of cleaner cooking fuels. Both technological and political solutions, however, face challenges in their efforts to transform energy practices. Scientists conclude that to address one of the causes of global environmental change (i.e., solid fuel consumption), we need to understand the relative importance of household conditions compared to environmental characteristics, both built and natural (Rosenthal et al., 2017).

Our research examines regional differences in energy usage patterns through analysis of subnational variation in solid fuel dependence in Peru. Among LMICs, Peru provides an informative context for this type of analysis. Overall, the country is less dependent on solid fuels than many other LMICs. Specifically, just 26% of the country’s households used solid fuels as their primary cooking fuels in 2017, which is less than in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (80%), South-East Asia (58%), and the Western Pacific (31%) (IHME, 2018). However, solid fuel use varies by as much as 71% in neighboring Peruvian regions. Solid fuel dependence in the Lima region was 2.9% in 2012, on par with Europe (<5%). This is also comparable to several regions in Colombia (Atlántico, Guaviare, Quindío, Vichada), and to Ecuador, where 3.2% of households rely on solid fuel use at the country level. In contrast, directly across the administrative border in Huancavelica, solid fuel dependence in 2012 was 81%, similar to Sub-Saharan Africa. Similar dependence levels are observed in several regions in Honduras (Intibucá, La Paz, and Lempira) and Guatemala (Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, El Quiché, Sololá) – all of which display dependence levels of more than 80%.

Despite the documented importance of solid fuel use for health and climate, to date, and to the best of our knowledge, no research provides a systematic analysis of determinants of this variability to explain vast disparities within the same country. A thorough understanding of variability in solid fuel use within Peru has far-reaching implications when it comes to uncovering within-country inequity in clean fuel access and a global understanding of successful and unsuccessful fuel transitions. We examine associations between energy use, on the one hand, and affordability, access, and need, on the other. In our conceptualization of access and need, we rely on several proxies, such as geographical location. We further investigate affordability through the role of female employment (vis-à-vis male employment) in energy use. Finally, we investigate the role of indigenous populations, whose fuel decisions depend on traditional and cultural requirements. While our variables have some limitations (e.g., we do not have data on decision-making), our analysis provides a contextualized region-level understanding of the relationship between environmental factors and household energy use within a country.

Our study makes two key contributions to the research on solid fuel dependence. First, we identify knowledge and evidence gaps regarding regional variation in patterns of solid fuel consumption in Peru. We then seek to fill these gaps by offering a systematic assessment of associations between a broad range of explanatory factors and solid fuel use. Our study also has the benefit of calculating the size of identified associations, which helps to compare the relative importance of different explanatory factors. Second, our results can provide useful guidelines for drawing up policies in developing countries with the goal of reducing solid fuel consumption. One approach to reducing solid fuel use is to implement policies making alternative sources of energy more accessible (e.g., through electrification, or providing alternative cookstoves). This approach directly addresses the problem of solid fuel dependence. Our research provides evidence that such direct strategies are beneficial: electrification has a negative association with solid fuel use. At the same time, we show that this is not the only viable approach – in fact, when governments implement policies in other critical areas, such as policies enhancing girls’ access to education and providing skills required for high-skill occupations, such policies can help reduce solid fuel dependence as well. Given that LMICs’ governments are significantly constrained in their resources and, hence, ability to implement multiple policies at the same time, it is helpful to have information about policy trade-offs. Our findings suggest that some policies generate multiple benefits: for instance, by improving education, governments are also contributing to the success of energy transition policies.