University of Chicago / Harvard / IPA · India (Orissa state) · 2016
Summary
The clean cookstove experiment produced a sobering null result despite high initial enthusiasm. Although households adopted the stoves when offered at subsidized prices, usage fell sharply over 4 years as stoves required maintenance and households found traditional cooking methods preferable for certain dishes. Critically, no improvement in health outcomes was detected — suggesting that either usage rates need to be much higher to see health effects, or that even 50% reduced emissions are insufficient given household exposure levels. The finding substantially revised the development community's approach to clean energy interventions.
Research question
"Do improved cookstoves reduce indoor air pollution and health burdens for rural households?"
Methodology
Intervention
Randomly offered improved biomass cookstoves (Envirofit) at subsidized prices; cookstoves reduce particulate emissions by 50–80% compared to traditional open fires