尼泊尔家庭用电烹饪经济学

11157 Produced by the Research Support TeamAbstractThe Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely thoseof the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank andits affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.Policy Research Working Paper11157The residential sector is one of the main consumers of energyin Nepal, with cooking being a major end-use. Unprocessedsolid biomass fuels are the primary cooking fuels, withapproximately 60% of households relying on them for theircooking needs. However, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG),which is entirely imported, is being widely adopted in urbanareas. Electricity, which is primarily based on hydropower,a clean domestic energy source, has been used for cookingin less than one percent of households. This paper examinesthe cost economics of alternative technologies and fuels orThis paper is a product of the Development Research Group, Development Economics. It is part of a larger effort by theWorld Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around theworld. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors maybe contacted at gtimilsina@worldbank.org. their combinations for household cooking across differenttopographical regions in Nepal from both private and socialperspectives. It finds electricity, on average, cheaper thanfossil fuels but costlier than biomass fuels from a privateperspective. If the costs of local air pollutants, particularlyPM2.5, are considered, electricity would be the cheapestoption for cooking, except for biogas, which also has min-imal external costs. The study also attempts to explore thewider economic benefits of substituting imported LPG withdomestic hydropower for household cooking. Economics of Household Cooking Using Electricity in Nepal1Sunil Malla, Govinda R. Timilsina and Martin P. Heger2Key Worlds: Household cooking, Fuel choices for cooking, Economic analysis of cooking,Nepal, Electric cookingJEL Classification: Q42, Q551The views and interpretations are of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group and theorganizations they are affiliated with. We acknowledge the World Bank’s South Asia Department for Environmentand Blue Economy for financial support.2Govinda R. Timilsina (gtimilsina@worldbank.org) and Martin P. Heger (mheger1@worldbank.org) are,respectively, Senior Research Economist and Senior Environmental Economist, at World Bank Group. Sunil Malla(malla.sunil@gmail.com) is a Short-term Consultant to the World Bank Group. 1.IntroductionThe residential sector is the largest energy-consuming sector in Nepal. In 2023,approximately 61% of Nepal’s total final energy consumption is attributed to this sector (WECS,2024a). More than half (54%) of Nepalese households still use unprocessed or traditionalbiomass (fuelwood, animal dung, and agriculture residue) as a primary source of energy forcooking (NPC, 2024a). In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 25,447Nepalese people died prematurely from illnesses3attributable to household air pollution (HAP)(WHO, 2024). Women are disproportionately affected more by illnesses associated withrespiratory infections, COPD, and lung cancer, attributable to HAP, because they often spend asignificant part of their day preparing a meal. It is common knowledge that switching to cleanerfuels or technologies derived from unprocessed biomass for cooking benefits householdsfinancially while reducing negative health and environmental impacts.Recognizing the inefficiency inherent in traditional biomass and cooking stoves, theadverse impacts on human health, and the negative socio-economic consequences (e.g., younggirls are forced to collect fuelwoods instead of enrolling them in schools), the government ofNepal has initiated several household-specific clean cooking policies and programs at thenational and provincial levels. The primary objectives of the policies and programs were toreduce reliance on traditional biomass for cooking and switch to modern fuels and technologies,such as LPG, electricity, biogas, and improved cookstoves (GoN, 2021; NPC, 2020, 2024b;WHO, 2023).4These initiatives have contributed significantly to the adoption of clean cooking3The WHO listed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischaemic heart disease, stroke, acute lowerrespiratory infections, and trachea, broncus and lung cancer, as the top five illnesses associ