Household Energy Access for Cooking and Heating : Lessons Learned and the Way Forward

Half of humanity about 3 billion people
are still relying on solid fuels for cooking and heating. Of
that, about 2.5 billion people depend on traditional biomass
fuels (wood, charcoal, agricultural waste, and animal dung),
while about 400 million people use coal as their primary
cooking and heating fuel (UNDP and WHO 2009). The majority
of the population relying on solid fuels lives in
Sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia. In some countries in
Central America and in East Asia and the Pacific, the use of
solid fuels is also significant. The inefficient and
unsustainable production and use of these fuels result in a
significant public health hazard, as well as negative
environmental impacts that keep people in poverty.
Strategies to improve energy access to the poor have focused
mainly on electricity access. They have often neglected non
electricity household energy access. It is, however,
estimated that about 2.8 billion people will still depend on
fuel wood for cooking and heating in 2030 in a
business-as-usual modus operandi (IEA 2010). The need for
urgent interventions at the household level to provide
alternative energy services to help improve livelihoods is
becoming more and more accepted. This report's main
objective is to conduct a review of the World Bank's
financed operations and selected interventions by other
institutions on household energy access in an attempt to
examine success and failure factors to inform the new
generation of upcoming interventions. First, the report
provides a brief literature review to lay out the
multidimensional challenge of an overwhelming reliance on
solid fuels for cooking and heating. Second, it highlights
how the Bank and selected governments and organizations have
been dealing with this challenge. Third, it presents lessons
learned to inform upcoming interventions. And finally, it
indicates an outlook on the way forward.