The benefits of action to reduce household air pollution (BAR-HAP) model: A new decision support tool

Ipsita Das,Heather Adair-Rohani,Jessica J Lewis,Melanie Bertram,Ramona Ludolph,Marc Jeuland,Fausto Cavallaro

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0245729

Ipsita Das, Heather Adair-Rohani + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245729

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Abstract

Cooking with polluting and inefficient fuels and technologies is responsible for a large set of global harms, ranging from health and time losses among the billions of people who are energy poor, to environmental degradation at a regional and global scale. This paper presents a new decision-support model-the BAR-HAP Tool-that is aimed at guiding planning of policy interventions to accelerate transitions towards cleaner cooking fuels and technologies. The conceptual model behind BAR-HAP lies in a framework of costs and benefits that is holistic and comprehensive, allows consideration of multiple policy interventions (subsidies, financing, bans, and behavior change communication), and realistically accounts for partial adoption and use of improved cooking technology. It incorporates evidence from recent efforts to characterize the relevant set of parameters that determine those costs and benefits, including those related to intervention effectiveness. Practical aspects of the tool were modified based on feedback from a pilot testing workshop with multisectoral users in Nepal. To demonstrate the functionality of the BAR-HAP tool, we present illustrative calculations related to several cooking transitions in the context of Nepal. In accounting for the multifaceted nature of the issue of household air pollution, the BAR-HAP model is expected to facilitate cross-sector dialogue and problem-solving to address this major health, environment and development challenge.

Highlights

Exposure to air pollution, especially fine particulate matter (i.e., PM2.5) is associated with increased hospitalization, disability and death from a wide range of illnesses [1]
Though many of the input parameters have been validated for Nepal, some have not, such that the results should not be taken as justification for specific policy-making in the country
This paper’s main contribution is in presenting a new decision-support model–the BAR-Household air pollution (HAP) Tool–that is aimed at helping health and government decision-makers to plan policy interventions to accelerate transitions towards cleaner cooking technologies, and in describing the tool’s methodology

Summary

Introduction

Especially fine particulate matter (i.e., PM2.5) is associated with increased hospitalization, disability and death from a wide range of illnesses [1]. This section describes empirical evidence on the effectiveness of five policy instruments included in the BAR-HAP Tool, that are intended to reduce exposure to HAP, namely: stove subsidy, fuel subsidy, stove finance, fuel bans and behavior change communication (BCC). These interventions were selected because they comprise the most commonly-deployed policy instruments that aim to increase household adoption of cleaner technologies, as opposed to other interventions such as certification and standards that cannot be directly linked to technology use. There is evidence from Cambodia that economic incentives (i.e., stove use subsidies and rebates) facilitate initial ICS adoption but do not necessarily induce long-term use [25]

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