The Potential For Bioethanol Fuels To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Household Cooking In Urban Informal Settlements: A Case Study Of Kibera, Kenya

Abstract

This thesis explores the potential for increased adoption of clean and sustainable domestic cooking fuels in urban informal settlements to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. It also highlights the impact of continued charcoal and kerosene fuels use in Kibera and the overall implications to sustainable development frameworks such as the National Determined Contributions and Sustainable Energy for All Action Agenda. In this regard, the thesis focuses on assessing the potential and feasibility of using bioethanol fuels for domestic cooking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest urban informal settlements. Past research often depicted economically marginalized households in informal settlements and in rural areas as negligible contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, owing to their modest consumption and dependence on wood fuels as the main source of household energy. This thesis challenges the notion that the transition to clean and sustainable energy in urban informal settlements should not be prioritized by policy makers. By applying a mixed-method approach, a series of qualitative and quantitative results from 400 randomly-selected households in Kibera provide a framework for understanding the core factors responsible for household cooking energy choice. Analysis of the quantitative findings showed that charcoal and kerosene were the main cooking fuels available in Kibera, used by 76% and 81% of surveyed households respectively, typically in combination with each other. Only 10% of the surveyed households reported using bioethanol fuels for domestic cooking. It was estimated that approximately 3,764.39 ( *+,- emissions will be generated annually as a direct result of the combustion of the current mix of cooking fuels, on the other hand, the study estimated that 98% of annual emissions from household cooking would be avoided if all households in Kibera were to completely switch to bioethanol fuel as the only means of domestic cooking. Analysis of qualitative information collected through triangulation of various information collection strategies, including surveys, semi-structured interviews with key experts and targeted focus groups, illuminated the key roles of the government and the private sector in reducing the costs of bioethanol fuels and stoves making them affordable to Kibera families. By providing empirical evidence, the study argues that greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions as a result of reliance on unsustainable and heavily-polluting fuels for domestic cooking are not only negatively impacting on the environment and human health but could also be dramatically reduced by transitioning to simple, low-tech alternative cooking technologies such as bioethanol. In this respect, the study concludes by providing specific policy and technology recommendations to overcome key barriers of adoption of bioethanol fuels which are discussed at length in chapter 6.