Beer, Wood, and Welfare--The Impact of Improved Stove Use Among Dolo-Beer Breweries.

Michael Grimm,Jörg Peters

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132603

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Poverty and environmental hazards are directly related
Shindell et al [35] identify the reduction of firewood consumption for cooking purposes as a promising quick win against short-term climate change processes, because unlike classical climate gases such as CO2 the short-lived nature of black carbon suggests that strong immediate action will generate immediate reduction of warming processes. While it is obviously beyond the scope of this study to quantify the effects of the reduction in firewood consumption on forests and black carbon emissions, below we will present a conservative calculation of reduction in CO2-emissions based on the methodology that is applied for the clean development mechanism (CDM), developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) [38]
In this paper we first evaluated the direct effects of an improved brewing stove program on firewood savings in local beer breweries in urban Burkina Faso and, assessed the indirect effects of these savings on the price of firewood and on residential users’ welfare in the affected cities

Summary

Introduction

Poverty and environmental hazards are directly related. One of the most striking examples for this is the usage of biomass–mostly firewood and charcoal–for cooking purposes. Our questionnaire collected information about the socio-demographic characteristics of these breweries and the people working there, the brewing process including wood consumption and about the awareness and possibly use of improved cooking stoves. Breweries in Bobo-Dioulasso use different stoves and cauldrons and buy, as can be seen at the end of Table 4, more frequently their wood in smaller quantities, which typically means they have to pay a higher unit price compared to a larger purchase. The quantity of dolo produced per brewing differs across breweries, as do the quantities of malt and water used, the quality of the stove and so on; these factors need to be included in the estimations This allows computing the average savings for Roumdé users per litre of dolo made. While it is obviously beyond the scope of this study to quantify the effects of the reduction in firewood consumption on forests and black carbon emissions, below we will present a conservative calculation of reduction in CO2-emissions based on the methodology that is applied for the clean development mechanism (CDM), developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) [38]

Results

Conclusion

45. Source