Fueling the Change : The Journey From Biomass to Modern Source: Situation and Perspectives of Cooking Fuels in Côte d'Ivoire

In Cote D´Ivoire, as in most Sub-Saharan countries, massive burning of biomass used as cooking fuel has terrible consequences on people's health. After malaria, lower respiratory infections are the second cause of death in the country, accounting for 11% of total deaths. Deaths correlated with indoor air pollution due to cooking are estimated to be 22,000 per year. The impact in terms of deforestation is also very serious. A study made by BNETD in 2016, related to quantitative factors of deforestation, shows that in the last 25 years the area covered by forest decreased from 24.36 % to 10.56% in 2015. On the positive side, the use of butane for cooking is expanding rapidly in the country, especially in urban areas: today in 92% of the households in Abidjan it is possible to find a butane cylinder used for cooking, although most of the times it is not the main fuel used. This paper provides an overview of the current situation of cooking fuels sector in Cote d'Ivoire and on the progress made so far in the process of switching from traditional sources to cleaner and more modern ones. The aim of the paper is to understand what barriers are still limiting the adoption of modern fuels, what alternatives have been tried so far to break them down and what opportunities arise for private entrepreneurs willing to enter the Ivorian market and accelerate the process of switching to modern cooking fuels.The analysis conducted in this paper is based on information publicly available or obtained from industry experts or representatives of the key companies and institutions operating in this sector and on the results of a field survey conducted by ENSEA (Ecole Nationale Superieure de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquee)