Determinants of household energy fuel choice in Lesotho

Abstract

The determinants of household energy fuel choice have not been studied in some developing countries, including Lesotho, despite the potential benefits such a study might have for policy design and implementation. This study uses the data collected by Lesotho’s Bureau of Statistics through a national household energy consumption survey of 2017, and a multinomial logistic regression to analyse the determinants of household energy fuel choice in Lesotho. The results indicate that the gender of the household head does not influence the choice of cleaner energy fuels for cooking and water heating. However, the age and education of the household head, household size, level of income, and access to electricity are drivers of energy fuel choice. The older the household head and the larger the household, the less likely it is to adopt cleaner energy fuels. Generally, higher income, access to electricity and a better-educated household head make a household more likely to adopt clean energy fuels. Thus, policies aimed at promoting household income-generating opportunities, effective provision of access to electricity, and investment in education can influence the choice of clean energy use within households. But these policies must be tailored to the unique characteristics of different settlement types, given that the significance of these determinants vary across rural, peri-urban, and urban areas.