Clean Cooking Forum 2022

Opinion on the role of end-user subsidies for high quality stove and fuels (e.g. ISO Tier 4-5 for efficiency and emissions) stoves and fuels is often divided into two camps; those who view end-user subsidies, especially freely distributed stoves, as inappropriate tools that risk reducing willingness to pay and distorting market structures, and those that see end-user subsidies as a necessary tool to ensure that socially beneficial solutions like clean cooking are accessible at the last mile and affordable for those at the base of the pyramid. While subsidies typically provide a partial reduction in price, the recent revival of carbon markets is making 100% subsidies on clean cooking products more common in the clean cooking industry. In light of national experiences with household energy subsidies in places like Ecuador, India, and Indonesia, it is opportune to better understand the risks and opportunities of end-user subsidies in the development of sustainable clean cooking markets.

The first part of the session will be structured as a debate with panelists responding to the proposition “Large end-user subsidies for high quality stoves and fuels do more harm than good in the development of sustainable clean cooking markets”.

The second part of the session will be a moderated discussion between the panelists based on some of the views presented during the debate, rebuttals, brainstorming about how smart, targeted subsidies might change the equation, and questions from the audience.

Watch this session.