世界银行-尼泊尔家庭用电烹饪经济学（英）-2025.6_47页_732kb

Summary of "Economics of Household Cooking Using Electricity in Nepal"

• Background: Cooking is a major energy use in Nepal, with over 50% of households relying on traditional biomass fuels like fuelwood, leading to high health impacts from household air pollution (HAP).

• Methodology: The study uses a levelized cost of cooking (LCOC) approach to analyze private and social costs, incorporating fuel prices, cookstove efficiencies, and external health costs. It estimates LCOC across regions and fuel types.

• Key Findings:

  • Cost Economics: Fuelwood is the cheapest cooking option privately in rural areas due to accessibility, but electric cooking is competitive or cheaper in urban regions when fuelwood prices rise. Electric cooking has lower external costs when environmental and health impacts are considered.
  • Health Impacts: Biomass combustion causes significant HAP-related deaths and costs (e.g., 25,000 premature deaths in 2019). Electric cooking reduces local air pollution and offers health co-benefits.
  • Wider Economic Effects: Substituting LPG with electricity could save on fuel import bills, create jobs (e.g., in construction and operation of hydropower plants), and add value to the economy through sectoral multipliers.

• Policy Implications: Promote electric cooking through subsidies on appliances, financial schemes for installment payments, public awareness campaigns, and infrastructure improvements to ensure reliable electricity supply.