Energy use and energy access in relation to poverty

This paper looks at how access and use of energy are related to poverty. Different approaches to how energy poverty might be measured are presented. One approach involves the estimation of basic energy needs of a household based on engineering calculations and certain normative assumptions. The second looks at poverty in relation to access to different energy sources. An alternative approach is then provided that combines the elements of access and consumption of energy in order to examine how these relate to the well being of households. Examining well being in terms of both these dimensions – access to clean and efficient energy sources; and sufficiency in terms of the quantity of energy consumed, could be an important complementary measure of poverty. The consumption dimension includes non-commercial consumption and thus includes self-produced and bartered products. The access dimension can serve as an indicator of the extent of market integration, or more specifically, as an indicator of the opportunity to join the modern market economy.

The promises and challenges of biofuels for the poor in developing countries: IFPRI 2005-2006 Annual Report Essay

"In the past several years the changing world energy situation has generated intensive discussion about biofuels, much of it promising a source of environment-friendly energy that would also be a boon to the world's farmers. At the same time skeptics argue that biofuel production will threaten food supplies for the poor and fail to achieve the environmental benefits claimed. Based on the analyses below, we conclude that in order to make a difference in the lives of poor people as both energy producers and consumers, and to make strong environmental and economic contributions, biofuel technology needs further advancement, and investments and policies facilitating agricultural innovation and trade will have to be considered." from TextBiofuels, Poor Developing countries, Small farmers,

Fuel Choices in Urban Indian Households

This paper applies an ordered logit model to fuel choices and patterns of cooking fuels in urban Indian households. A large microeconomic dataset is employed to carry out the analysis. The results show that in addition to income, there are several socio-demographic factors such as education and sex of the head of the household, which are important in determining household fuel choice. In addition, the model performs better when information on the shares of different fuels in total useful cooking energy are included, and this suggests that it is important to incorporate multiple fuel use patterns in modeling fuel choice in the Indian context.

Elasticities of Electricity Demand in Urban Indian Households

Energy demand, and in particular electricity demand in India has been growing at a very rapid rate over the last decade. Given, current trends in population growth, industrialisation, urbanisation, modernisation and income growth, electricity consumption is expected to increase substantially in the coming decades as well. Tariff reforms could play a potentially important role as a demand side management tool in India. However, the effects of any price revisions on consumption will depend on the price elasticity of demand for electricity. In the past, electricity demand studies for India published in international journals have been based on aggregate macro data at the country or sub-national/ state level. In this paper, price and income elasticities of electricity demand in the residential sector of all urban areas of India are estimated for the first time using disaggregate level survey data for over thirty thousand households. Three electricity demand functions have been estimated using monthly data for the following seasons: winter, monsoon and summer. The results show electricity demand is income and price inelastic in all three seasons, and that household, demographic and geographical variables are important in determining electricity demand, something that is not possible to determine using aggregate macro models alone.Residential electricity demand, price elasticity, income elasticity

The Household Energy Transition in India and China

Both India and China are countries in energy transition. This paper compares the household energy transitions in these nations through the analysis of both aggregate statistics and nationally representative household surveys. The two countries differ sharply in several respects. Residential energy consumption in China is twice that in India, in aggregate terms. In addition, Chinese households have almost universal access to electricity, while in India almost half of rural households and 10% of urban households still lack access. On aggregate, urban households in China also derive a larger share of their total energy from liquid fuels and grids (77%) as compared to urban Indian households (65%). Yet, at every income level, Indians derive a slightly larger fraction of their total household energy needs from liquid and grid sources of energy than Chinese with comparable incomes. Despite these differences, trends in energy use and the factors influencing a transition to modern energy in both nations are similar. Compared with rural households, urban households in both nations consume a disproportionately large share of commercial energy and are much further along in the transition to modern energy. However, total energy consumption in rural households exceeds that in urban households, because of a continued dependence on inefficient solid fuels, which contribute to over 85% of rural household energy needs in both countries. In addition to urbanisation, key drivers of the transition in both nations include income, energy prices, energy access and local fuel availabiluty

Elasticities of electricity demand in urban Indian households

In the past, several electricity demand studies have been published for India based on aggregate macro data at the country or sub-national/state level. Since the underlying theory of consumer demand is based on the behaviour of individual agents, the use of micro data, which reflects individual and household behaviour, more closely, can shed greater light on the nature of consumer responses. In this paper, seasonal price and income elasticities of electricity demand in the residential sector of all urban areas of India are estimated for the first time using disaggregate level survey data for about thirty thousand households. Three electricity demand functions have been econometrically estimated using monthly data for the winter, monsoon and summer season in order to understand the extent to which factors like income, prices, household size and other household specific characteristics, influence variations observed in individual households’ electricity demand. The results show electricity demand is income and price inelastic in all three seasons, and that household, demographic and geographical variables are significant in determining electricity demand

Bioenergy and agriculture: promises and challenges

Peter Hazell.Biofuels, Agricultural research, Development, Poor Developing countries,

A critical review of modern approaches for multidimensional energy poverty measurement

Recent efforts to measure energy poverty more comprehensively attempt to redress the shortcomings of binary metrics that remain in common use. However, significant challenges remain both with the construction of the new measurement frameworks and their application. The paper presents an analysis of recent multidimensional measurement approaches and applications to draw inferences on the implications of applying these for the measurement of energy access and in informing policies aimed at improving it. The assessment suggests that despite progress having been made in capturing the multidimensional nature of energy poverty, the new measures are currently too complex to operationalize at the global level and too prescriptive to gain acceptance in diverse national contexts. Further efforts are thus required to consolidate and simplify the new frameworks for global tracking purposes, and to adapt and modify these to specific country contexts to inform national policy and planning. A subset of key energy poverty dimensions and uniform set of indicators need to be shortlisted for the purposes of global comparisons, while specific national tracking efforts can apply dimensions and thresholds most suited to accurately capture energy poverty and its drivers in a given context