Cooking up an electric revolution: The political economy of e-cooking

Abstract

There is a puzzle regarding the electrification of cooking. While important advances have been made in the provision of clean cooking on the one hand, and there have been heightened efforts to increase rates of electrification throughout the world on the other, the two policy objectives are often not integrated, despite the overlapping health, environmental and economic benefits of doing so. Energy policy often overlooks electric cooking as part of broader electrification strategies and forecasts, while clean cooking advocates often omit electrification from their initiatives. This means significant progress in meeting cooking needs through electrification is not being achieved. Hence, although SDG7's aims of universal access to electricity and clean cooking fuels and technologies are intertwined, and provide overlapping health, environment, and economic benefits, energy policy around these two goals remains disconnected. Drawing on interviews with practitioners and researchers and informed by a review of relevant academic and grey literature, we explore how political economy analysis can shed light on this mutual neglect by providing an understanding of the ways in which power, politics and governance shape the current landscape of e-cooking, but also how, when reconfigured, they have the potential to shape a pathway of greater electrification. Informed by the preceding analysis, we suggest some potential intervention points for moving forward. These include supporting niche actors; building coalitions supportive of the transition; rethinking behaviour change around cooking; using state policy to accelerate e-cooking transitions and improving coordination among international actors active in this space.