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

Abstract

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

Modeling approaches and performance for estimating personal exposure to household air pollution: A case study in Kenya

“…While 67% of Kenyan households rely primarily on biomass for their cooking needs, 15 the country also has a relatively strong market for modern biomass cookstoves and clean cooking energy sources. The Kenyan clean cooking market is supported by innovative consumer finance programs such as pay‐as‐you go systems and microfinance 16 . A national charcoal production and sale ban enacted in 2019 may be accelerating household energy transitions.…”

Pay-as-you-go LPG: A mixed-methods pilot study in urban Rwanda

“…This is notable as other studies have emphasised the importance of policy interventions for achieving LPG adoption and sustained use (Astuti et al 2019;Kumar et al 2016) whereas this transition was instigated by the private sector. This indicates that PAYG LPG could be an effective demand-side intervention for addressing reliance on polluting cooking fuels amongst the urban middle-classes in low and middleincome countries and echoes the conclusions of Shupler et al (2020). Further evidence of this emerged from strong perceptions that PAYG LPG was safe, which contrasted sharply against the widespread mistrust in LPG previously observed in Rwanda (Iribagiza et al 2020).…”

Beyond Household Socioeconomic Status: Multilevel Modeling of Supply-Side Determinants of LPG Consumption among 5,500 Households in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…13 Consumer nance mechanisms, including unconditional cash transfers, 34 micro nance and pay-as-yougo LPG, 35 which involve direct cylinder home deliveries, can help offset the nancial burden associated with transport and cost of re lls. PAYG LPG has shown promise in urban settings, 36 but will be more logistically challenging to implement in peri-urban areas due to higher transportation costs and enhanced distribution networks needed to ensure timely home deliveries. 13 The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) programme achieved rapid expansion of LPG access but did not lead to higher usage among rural Indian households.…”

“…The ability to cook two meals simultaneously on double-burner stoves was an advantage of LPG over kerosene reported by households in Nairobi, with users associating the doubleburner stove with greater time and fuel savings. 36 Participants in another Kenyan study stated having "no need to stack" when using double-burner stoves. 38 Thus, increasing access to multi-burner LPG stoves seems a simple, yet potentially highly effective intervention to increase clean cooking.…”