Waste Not: Can Household Biogas Deliver Sustainable Development?

Household biogas systems are a renewable energy technology with the potential to provide sustainable development benefits by reducing pressure on forest stocks and by shifting household time allocation towards higher value activities or long-term investments in human capital. We estimate the environ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental & resource economics 2019-03, Vol.72 (3), p.763-794
Main Authors: Meeks, Robyn, Sims, Katharine R. E., Thompson, Hope
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative energy sources
Biogas
Economic Policy
Economics
Economics and Finance
Energy development
Energy technology
Environmental Economics
Environmental impact
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice
Environmental Management
Environmental policy
Farmworkers
Forest management
Forest protection
Garbage collection
Households
Human capital
Installation
Labor
Renewable energy
Renewable energy technologies
Socioeconomic factors
Stocks
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Technology
Time allocation
Time use
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Summary:Household biogas systems are a renewable energy technology with the potential to provide sustainable development benefits by reducing pressure on forest stocks and by shifting household time allocation towards higher value activities or long-term investments in human capital. We estimate the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of biogas expansion in Nepal using an instrumental variables approach that exploits conditional variation in access to biogas installation companies. We confirm prior evidence that biogas use significantly reduces collected fuelwood, estimating changes of approximately 800–2000 kg per year per household. We find new evidence that biogas saves time in fuelwood collection (23–47%), and results in reallocation of time away from home production and wage labor towards agricultural labor and education. We find that biogas reduced forest cover loss in the Hill region and when combined with other forest protection policies. Together the results suggest that biogas can contribute modestly to sustainable development, particularly in combination with complimentary opportunities or policies.
ISSN:0924-6460
1573-1502
DOI:10.1007/s10640-018-0224-1