Volume 9: Sustainable Energy Solutions for Changing the World: Part I

Effect of cooking fuel transition on energy demand and GHG emissions in rural households of Nepal by 2050 Kumar Biswajit Debnath

Abstract

Nepal —a least developed country from South Asia— is targeting towards graduating to become a developing country by 2021. In Nepal, approximately 80% of the population lives in rural areas. The energy demand in rural households is dominated (~97%) by the use of emission-intensive cooking fuels such as firewood, kerosene, and cow dung, which is responsible for the significantly high (~25 MtCO2e in 2010) GHG emissions in rural households in Nepal. Therefore, the rural household sector in Nepal must transition to a sustainable form of cooking fuel to reduce its GHG emissions in the future. The objective of the study was to develop an energy-emissions model to estimate and forecast the effect of cooking fuel on energy demand and GHG emissions in the rural household sector in Nepal up to 2050. We showed that Nepal’s energy demand would be ~95 TWh by 2050 (1.3 times) than that of 2010 under Business-as-usual scenario. Furthermore, Nepal’s rural household sector may reduce 92% of GHG emissions and 84% total energy demand by 2050 as compared to 2010 by transitioning to electricity and LPG based cooking fuel.

Keywords Cooking fuel transition, energy demand, GHG emissions, rural household sector