Determinants of the Behavior of Households in Ouagadougou Regarding the Choice of Cooking Energy

Abstract

The Burkinabe energy context is characterized by a predominance of the use of biomass energies, the country's dependence on fossil fuels, low and inequitable access to modern energies and very low valorization of endogenous renewable energies. Households use these different types of energy for cooking, heating food and heating water. The choice of these energies depends on several criteria. The analysis of the characteristics which can influence this choice is based on the discrete choice model resulting from the hypothesis of utility maximization behavior of the economic agent. This analysis reveals that certain household characteristics including household size, high income and the level of education of the head of household have an effect on energy choice although it is weak. The environmental criterion has no effect on the choice of households and the observation is that the choice of households is mainly based on their desire for comfort. The environmental reason is rarely mentioned. Given the weakness of the vegetation cover in the country, it would be appropriate to intensify the supervision of the wood sector, to strengthen the actions already undertaken (reduction of wood consumption, promotion of energy alternatives, safeguarding and restoration of forests) and the capacities of the actors and finally placed great emphasis on the need to provide quality education to raise popular awareness of environmental issues.