Abstract
While the health and environmental benefits of adopting clean cooking fuel are widely documented in the literature, the immediate and direct benefit—women’s time-saving for fuel collection/preparation and cooking—has received little or no attention. Using panel data from 6 energy-poor Indian states involving about 9000 households, we test whether liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) adoption enhances women’s welfare by reducing fuel collection/preparation and cooking time and improving the overall cooking experience through a convenient and efficient cooking arrangement. We also explore the association between women’s participation in decision-making and the likelihood of LPG adoption and refill. The findings reveal that LPG adopters save time by collecting firewood less frequently and preparing fewer pieces of dung cake than non-adopters. Additionally, LPG adopters save 15 min of cooking time per day than non-adopters. Finally, LPG adoption makes the cooking experience more convenient and simpler than traditional cooking fuel. Women’s sole or joint decision-making power is positively correlated with LPG adoption and refilling LPG cylinders. These findings imply that the true social benefit of clean cooking fuel adoption is much greater than the welfare gain accrued through greenhouse gas mitigation and health benefits from cleaner air. However, these positive externalities are less likely to be internalized in fuel choice decisions in households where women do not participate in important household decision-making.
Highlights
Traditional cooking fuels, such as firewood, crop residues, or cow dung, and traditional cookstoves emit carbon dioxide (CO2), respirable particles, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO; N 2O), and sulfur (S) that cause air pollution (Bruce et al 2015; Cameron et al 2016; Kandpal et al 1995; Smith and Sagar 2014)
The number of people who used liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as their main cooking fuel increased from 12.7% in 2015 to 33.5% in 2018
The results reveal that households who used LPG for all cooking were significantly more likely than non-adopters to report that cooking created smoke, cooking was dangerous, and cooking was too difficult
Summary
Traditional cooking fuels, such as firewood, crop residues, or cow dung, and traditional cookstoves emit carbon dioxide (CO2), respirable particles, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO; N 2O), and sulfur (S) that cause air pollution (Bruce et al 2015; Cameron et al 2016; Kandpal et al 1995; Smith and Sagar 2014). All six states covered by the ACCESS survey were among the priority states under the PMUY program due to a lower preprogram LPG usage than the national average (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 2016). Rural residents in these states relied predominantly on firewood, crop residue and dung cake for cooking fuel before the rollout of the program while the use of LPG as a cooking fuel was limited among middle-high income urban residents (Aggarwal et al 2018). As of July 2019, 72 million connections had been provided under this scheme (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 2019)
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