Policy trade-offs between climate mitigation and clean cook-stove access in South Asia

Colin Cameron, Shonali Pachauri, Narasimha D. Rao, David McCollum, Joeri Rogelj, Keywan Riahi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

Household air pollution from traditional cook stoves presents a greater health hazard than any other environmental factor. Despite government efforts to support clean-burning cooking fuels, over 700 million people in South Asia could still rely on traditional stoves in 2030. This number could rise if climate change mitigation efforts increase energy costs. Here we quantify the costs of support policies to make clean cooking affordable to all South Asians under four increasingly stringent climate policy scenarios. Our most stringent mitigation scenario increases clean fuel costs 38% in 2030 relative to the baseline, keeping 21% more South Asians on traditional stoves or increasing the minimum support policy cost to achieve universal clean cooking by up to 44%. The extent of this increase depends on how policymakers allocate subsidies between clean fuels and stoves. These additional costs are within the range of financial transfers to South Asia estimated in efforts-sharing scenarios of international climate agreements.

Original languageEnglish
Article number15010
JournalNature Energy
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 11 2016
Externally publishedYes

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