Results from the OnStove Nepal model "Achieving Nepal's clean cooking ambitions: an open source and geospatial cost–benefit analysis"

Description

Methods (English)

The following sections provide general information about the methodologies used to produce the datasets presented in this repository. However, to learn more in-deepth about the methodology used to create the result, please refer to the original publication DOI of the OnStove Nepal study.

GIS data processing

All raster datasets were clipped to the study area boundaries (Nepals country boundaries) and reprojected to the pseudo-mercator projection (EPSG:3857). The raster datasets that have a spatial resolution different from 1 km (Population, Nighttime lights, Forest cover and Livestock), are resampled to 1 km resolution. Furthermore, the grid cell of the walking friction layer is used as the base grid to which all other datasets are aligned and projected. This is done as this layer is originally at 1 km resolution and has a complete grid covering the entire study area.

All vector datasets (Road network, Medium voltage lines, and Water scarcity) were clipped to the administrative boundaries and reprojected to pseudo-mercator (EPSG:3857).

Additional rasters were computed for proximity to roads, medium voltage lines, and hydropower mini-grids. Finally, urban/rural categories were rasterized from the urban and rural municipalities categories of the country's administrative classification.

Cost Benefit Analysis with OnStove

OnStove, is a geospatial raster-based tool that determines the net-benefits of different cooking solutions, for each raster grid cell of a given study area. The tool takes into account four benefits of adopting clean cooking: reduced morbidity, mortality, emissions and time saved, as well as three costs: capital, fuel, and operation and maintenance (O&M). In each grid cell of the study area the stove with the highest net-benefit is chosen.

OnStove produces scenarios depicting the “true” cost of clean cooking. The scenarios' benefits and costs produced by the tool are to be interpreted as the benefits and costs one could expect if the clean cooking transition were to happen now (overnight change). Results from OnStove can be interpreted as an upper bound of net-benefits following a switch to cleaner stoves. This can give a sense of the cost of inaction. OnStove can be used by planners and policy makers to identify the potential benefits that different interventions could cause in their systems.

As part of this study, several additions and improvements were made to the tool, as well as developing and integrating it with the spatial MCA analysis. Read more about these methods in the OnStove Nepal publication.

Scenarios

Four clean cooking transition scenarios were analyzed, where the costs and benefits of transitioning from the traditional ways of cooking to cleaner options are estimated. The Social optimum scenario captures these costs and benefits from a societal perspective, i.e. the true cost and benefit to society, including externalities such as GHG emissions and health spillovers. The other three scenarios take a private household perspective, where all costs and benefits are estimated based on the direct effects and perceptions of household users. The Highly subsidized LPG scenario uses a low end-user LPG price to account for the historically high subsidies that the government of Nepal has directed to LPG cylinders. The Lower LPG subsidies scenario, accounts for the recent cut in subsidies for LPG cylinders implemented in Nepal. The Stated Policies scenario accounts for the subsidy plans from the Government of Nepal, where LPG subsidies are removed and a part is transferred to subsidize electricity for cooking. Moreover, subsidies for biogas digesters and Biomass ICS Tier 3 stoves are also implemented.

MCA analysis

A multicriteria analysis is done using the results of the Stated policies scenario, GIS information, and stakeholder preference weighting. This process allows decision-makers to identify priority areas of action to achieve the clean cooking goals of the government. These goals consist of achieving 25% of the population using as their primary stoves electric cookstoves, 500.000 biomass ICS Tier 3 stoves, and 200.000 biogas digesters.