From linear fuel switching to multiple cooking strategies: A critique and alternative to the energy ladder model

Promoting sustainable development requires evaluating the technical and pol icy options that will facilitate the adoption and use of energy efficient a nd less polluting cooking stoves and practices. The transition from traditi onal to modern fuels and devices has been explained by the "energy ladder" model that-suggests that with increasing affluence, a progression is expect ed from traditional biomass fuels to more advanced and less polluting fuels . In this paper we evaluate the energy ladder model utilizing data from a f our-year (1992-96) case study of a village in Mexico and from a large-scale survey from four states of Mexico. We show that an alternate "multiple fue l" model of stove and fuel management based on the observed pattern of hous ehold accumulation of energy options, rather than the simple progression de picted in the traditional energy ladder scenario, more accurately depicts c ooking fuel use patterns in rural households. The "multiple fuel" model int egrates four factors demonstrated to be essential in household decision mak ing under conditions of resource scarcity or uncertainty: (a) economics of fuel and stove type and access conditions to fuels, (b) technical character istics of cookstoves and cooking practices; (c) cultural preferences; and ( d) health impacts. This model also allows better estimates of the expected fuelwood demand and indoor air pollution in rural households. (C) 2000 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.