2025/07/08 by Bikram Acharya, Dipendra Prasad Pant, Mukunda Raj Kattel
Environmental Science · #Energy and Environment Impacts
paper · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114758
openalex publication_date 2025/07/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This study investigates energy-policy shifts and factors influencing households' transition to clean energy, focusing on cooking fuel practices during periods of abundant electricity supply and crises such as pandemics and blockades in Nepal. The rationale stems from the gap between increased clean fuel availability and low adoption rates, alongside concerns over heavy reliance on imported fuels impacting energy security. Using Nepal's Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2016 and 2022 datasets, with the Wealth Index as an economic status indicator, the study employs a multinomial probit model to analyze cooking fuel choices by taking household attributes like family structure, income, ICT familiarity, and regional factors into account. The findings of the study show that despite energy sector changes and government initiatives, the adoption of clean cooking energy remained minimal, as determinants like family size, education, and economic status were ineffective. Furthermore, subsidy-based electricity tariffs failed to attract households to clean energy for cooking purposes, highlighting the need for more effective policy measures.