Public policies to promote the elimination of polluting fuels for cooking in households: lessons learned from Bolivia, Ecuador and El Salvador

Abstract

The use of solid fuels and kerosene for cooking is one of the main environmental risks to health worldwide, affecting more than 2.8 billion people. In Latin-American and the Caribbean, 90 million people (13% of population) concentrated primarily in nine countries still live in homes using these polluting fuels for cooking. In 2019, the Directing Bodies of the Pan American Health Organization approved an elimination initiative to provide an integrated sustainable approach to orient and guide Member States as they work toward the elimination of a group of priority communicable diseases and related conditions. One of the conditions targeted for elimination is the use of polluting fuels for cooking. This paper analyzes the public policies that have accelerated the access to cleaner energy sources for cooking in Bolivia, Ecuador and El Salvador. These countries implemented different schemes to subsidize the consumption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In Ecuador the price of LPG has remained the same since 2002, and in Bolivia since 2005, with subsidies that have reached 90% in Ecuador and 70% in Bolivia. In El Salvador, a universal subsidy of 65% was removed in 2013 and replaced with a targeted subsidy to the poor that covers almost 70% of the population. As a result, 98%, 86%, and 81% of the population of Ecuador, El Salvador and Bolivia, respectively, now cook with LPG or electricity. These case studies corroborate our previous findings that public policies with economic incentives that promote universal access to cleaner energy sources are important for the transition to clean energy use. Even though most energy subsidies can be regressive, this is not the case for the energy subsidies for cooking as shown in these case studies. This should be taken into consideration when designing the necessary interventions to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.