Paradigms and poverty in global energy policy: research needs for achieving universal energy access

Sovacool, Benjamin K.; Bazilian, Morgan; Toman, Michael

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/6/064014

Cited by 32 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Thus, policies that foster fiscal and social empowerment of women may have important cobenefits in fostering the transition to clean cooking. 47 These policies are especially important during COVID-19, as female informal sector workers are likely to be among the first to lose their job and livelihoods during a lockdown, 48 potentially resulting in additional health burden (e.g. poor mental health).…”

Section: Female Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pay-as-you-go LPG supports sustainable clean cooking in Kenyan informal urban settlement, including during a period of COVID-19 lockdown

Shupler

O’Keefe²,

Puzzolo

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Approximately 2.8 billion people rely on polluting cooking fuels (e.g. wood, kerosene), exposing them to health-damaging household air pollution. A key access barrier to clean cooking fuels (e.g. liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)) is affordability. By enabling households to pay in small increments, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) LPG could help promote clean cooking, and support continued LPG use through periods of economic downturn. We investigate the ability of PAYG LPG to sustain access to clean cooking from January 2018-June 2020, including during COVID-19 lockdown (March-June 2020) in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. We utilize novel PAYG LPG smart meter data to document cooking/spending patterns from 426 PAYG LPG customers and semi-structured interviews among a subset of seven households. Objective cooking pattern comparisons are made to those cooking with full 6kg cylinder LPG and polluting fuel users from 23 households in peri-urban Eldoret in western Kenya, using stove monitoring data. Customers’ average PAYG LPG consumption was 0.97 kg/capita/month (11.6 kg/capita/year) prior to COVID-19 lockdown. Despite adverse economic impacts of the lockdown, 95% of households continued using PAYG LPG, and consumption increased to 1.22 kg/capita/month (March-June 2020). Daily cooking events using PAYG LPG increased by 60% (1.07 events/day (pre-lockdown) to 1.72 events/day (lockdown)). In contrast, among seven households purchasing full 6kg cylinder LPG in Eldoret, average days/month using LPG declined by 75% (17 to four days) during COVID-19 lockdown. Median PAYG LPG payment frequency doubled (from every 8 days to every 4 days) during lockdown, while average payment amount was nearly halved (336 Kenyan Shillings (KSh)/US$3.08 to 179 KSh/US$1.64).Interviewed customers reported numerous benefits of PAYG LPG beyond fuel affordability, including safety, time savings, cylinder delivery and user-friendliness. PAYG LPG helped sustain clean cooking during COVID-19 lockdown, possibly averting increases in polluting cooking fuel use and associated household air pollution exposures.Graphical AbstractHighlightsFirst study to report long-term cooking/spending patterns using PAYG LPG smart meter data95% of 301 active PAYG LPG customers in February 2020 continued to use the fuel during COVID-19 lockdownDaily cooking events using PAYG LPG increased by 60% during COVID-19 lockdownMedian payment frequency increased 50%, while single payment amount decreased 50% during lockdownThree-quarters of PAYG LPG households in this study were first time LPG users

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Section: Female Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pay-as-you-go LPG supports sustainable clean cooking in Kenyan informal urban settlement, including during a period of COVID-19 lockdown

Shupler

O’Keefe²,

Puzzolo

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…For instance, in 2016, the global renewable energy sector received $285.9 billion in investment, and (since REEEP's focus is on small-scale systems), distributed/off-grid distributed systems received at least $300 million (REN21 2016). Analysts have also generated a number of estimates of the cost of providing universal energy access in developing countries, and these estimates range from as little as $30 billion per year to as much as USD $130 billion per year (Sovacool et al, 2016).…”

Section: Funding (Weak)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building or stumbling blocks? Assessing the performance of polycentric energy and climate governance networks

Sovacool

Graaf

2018

Energy Policy

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Polycentric governance networks are on the rise in global energy and climate governance, but we know surprisingly little about their effectiveness. This paper analyzes the performance of four such transnational energy and climate governance networks. In the realm of sustainable energy, our cases are the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC). In the climate sphere, we examine the effectiveness of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI). Using principles from governance and public administration about the effectiveness of institutions, we examine the extent to which four networks have contributed to improving governance outcomes in the spheres of climate and sustainable energy. Our evaluation focuses on the clarity of purpose, funding, institutional formality, efficacy, and level of resilience of these networks. Some differences between the networks notwithstanding, we find that the transnational governance networks generally fail to meet the criteria about what constitutes an effective institution. The paper concludes with a reflection on what could be done to enhance the performance of these governance networks. governance 3. Polycentric governance assessment framework Polycentrism, a form of governance that blends scales and/or types of actors (Visseren-Hamakers, 2015; Galaz et al. 2012) is related to the more recent literature on 'network governance' and 'governance networks'. McGinnis and Ostrom (2012) note that the concept of polycentricity, first laid out by Michael Polanyi (1951) and later adopted by Vincent Ostrom et al. (1961), can be seen as an early statement of the critical importance of network forms of governance in democratic societies. Yet, the more recent literature on network governance and governance networks rarely makes any mention to this pioneering work (Klijn and Koppenjan, 2012), despite the similarity of the concepts. Nonetheless, the'governance networks' that are formed by actors from the state, the market and civil society to address climate change can be said to provide 'polycentric governance' in the sense that they include the self-organizing relationship between many centers of decision-making that are formally independent of each other (Ostrom et al., 1961: p. 831;Ostrom, 2010).In this section we propose four criteria, drawn mostly from the literature on public administration, policy sciences, and governance, to assess the performance of polycentric energy and climate networks, building on an earlier study by Poocharoen and Sovacool (2012). We employ the term 'performance', which allows for a more contextualized evaluation compared with the concept of 'effectiveness'. Whereas effectiveness usually refers to 'outcome' (i.e., goal attainment), performance refers more to 'process' (i.e., the manner by which outputs and outcomes are achieved). Here, we argue it includes the ability of the network to (1) set clear goals; (2) mobilize resources; (3) adopt formal structures; (4) make int...

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“…At the same time, lack of coordination between programs results in poor implementation and misalignment between objectives when, for example, opportunities created by electrification are not supported by simultaneous improvement in infrastructure and skills and capabilities development among the local population (Ruiz et al, 2007;Winkler et al, 2011). Quite often, electrification programs employ suboptiman and non-sustainable technical solutions with limited scalability which does not allow for further increase in the demand, and diminish the development opportunities (Ilskog, 2008;Sovacool, Bazilian, & Toman, 2016).…”

Section: Sustainable Development Agenda: How Far We Have Gone?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multinational Enterprises and Sustainable Development

Ghauri¹,

Fu²,

Väätänen³

2017

International Business and Management

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Center, and is the head of the Energy and Sustainability Department of the same center. His research activities are in the areas of planning and operation of electric power systems, considering renewable energy sources in the Power Systems Planning Laboratory-LabPlan in UFSC, applied to the reliability of power systems. He is a member of the Technological Nucleus of Electric Energy Research Group (NTEEL) and collaborates with INESC P&D Brazil-Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering, Research and Development of Brazil. Mhamed-Ali El-Aroui is a Professor of statistics and econometrics at the Université de Carthage in Tunisia. He received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Université Joseph Fourier de Grenoble in France. His research topics include applied statistics, econometric modeling, data analysis, risk management, computational statistics, and simulation. He has published and refereed papers in several scientific journals, including

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Paradigms and poverty in global energy policy: research needs for achieving universal energy access

Cited by 32 publications

References 36 publications

Pay-as-you-go LPG supports sustainable clean cooking in Kenyan informal urban settlement, including during a period of COVID-19 lockdown

Pay-as-you-go LPG supports sustainable clean cooking in Kenyan informal urban settlement, including during a period of COVID-19 lockdown

Building or stumbling blocks? Assessing the performance of polycentric energy and climate governance networks

Multinational Enterprises and Sustainable Development

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