18 May 2012: A study, conducted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Haryana State, India, has shown that a range of social, cultural and financial factors influence household decision making with regards to energy and cookstoves.

Previous studies have posited that efforts to to introduce cleaner cookstoves and/or cleaner cooking fuels have largely failed due to the lack of user-centred approaches when implementing these interventions. Using qualitative research methodologies, authors investigated four villages to understand energy use and decision making dynamics within each household, finding that decisions are made taking a range of factors into account, including availability and flexibility of traditional fuels, smoke pollution, taste of food, perception of alternate cookstoves and fuels as well as the aesthetic appeal of stoves.

These findings have numerous implications for effective cookstove initiative implementation in the future. This is particularly pertinent in the context of the Indian Government’s National Biomass Cookstove Initiative, launched in 2009, which aims to replace inefficient cookstoves with cleaner, efficient cookstoves in energy deficient and poor areas of the country. [SEI Press Release] [Working Paper: Putting the Cook Before the Stove: a User-Centred Approach to Understanding Household Energy Decision-Making] [Indian National Biomass Cookstove Initiative Website]