A Roadmap for Access to Clean Cooking Energy in India

Abstract

Access to clean cooking energy in India has gathered a new momentum in the political discourse of India, thanks to the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a scheme that aims to improve access to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) for the socio-economically weaker sections of society. While the scheme has been successful in providing LPG connections to over 54 million households, the real challenge is to sustain the use of clean cooking energy and transition households away from the traditional use of biomass. To achieve this transition, it is necessary to develop a roadmap for clean cooking energy access that adopts a multi-fuel, multi-stakeholder approach, and is guided by principles of equity and inclusivity. This essay outlines sectoral and fuel-specific strategies that such a roadmap should adopt. These strategies integrate technology and business model development and improve access to credit for both households and enterprises. Ensuring that these strategies are holistically implemented will require multiple ministries to come together to plug the gaps in the value chain of each fuel, and a monitoring framework to measure sustained use. The narrative must evolve towards the provision of affordable, accessible, safe and convenient use of clean cooking energy in a sustained manner.