Policy Brief: Biogas – Meeting Energy Needs in Rural Nepal

Meeting the energy needs for domestic and productive use has been a major problem in Nepal. More than 76 percent of the population depend on biomass (Ministry of Finance, 2015) for domestic as well as productive uses (home based enterprises) in the rural areas. In case of fossil fuels, the country is totally dependent on India. The country is faced with a double‐ edged sword when dealing with the issue of energy. This is true for biomass as well as fossil fuel: on the one hand, fuel wood availability is diminishing, and at the same time, this is accompanied with a higher demand for energy...

The Value of Rural Women’s Labour in Production and Wood Fuel Use

Dev Nathan, Indira Shakya, R Rengalakshmi, Manjula M, Shantanu GaIkwad, Govind Kelkar

How do gender-related factors influence cooking fuel use? Why does an LPG capital subsidy lead to fuel stacking rather than fuel switching? The insights gained from authors’ research are supplemented by case studies, specifically aimed at exploring the connections between women’s labour time and fuel use. Using these observations and case studies, an analytical framework is developed, which yields propositions that can be tested empirically, such as the high value of women’s labour in production leading to the adoption of labour-saving cooking fuel and vice versa. This framework is used to...

The Political Economy of Energy Policy in South Africa: From a Gender Agenda to a Class Project

Horman Chitonge

The paper begins with a profile of the energy sector, highlighting both the supply as well as demand sides, and focusing on the post-apartheid period. This is followed by a brief analysis of the development of the energy policy, including the main actors in its formulation. The next section looks at the four phases in the development of the energy policy from 1994 to the present. Following this is a brief discussion of how the South African energy policy is influenced by international factors and players, including international agreements on climate change and donors. A section on gender...

For Clean Cooking Energy in Rural India: Women’s Empowerment and LPG as Prestige Good

 Over a period of 12 years (1999–2000 to 2011–12) the reduction in the proportion of rural households primarily relying on firewood has  been from 86.1 percent to 77.2 percent in 2011–12 in a period of high economic growth. This raises the question: Besides economic growth, what else is needed at the policy level in order to bring a quick transition from solid biomass to clean fuels, LPG or electricity?The use of firewood as cooking fuel results in two problems. One is that there is a release of carbon (black carbon) contributing to the build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere...