Panel: Increasing Access to Sustainable Forms of Energy Would Improve Health, Empowerment

Many traditional forms of energy, such as burning wood and other solid fuels, are associated with respiratory deficits and other health problems. But transitioning to more sustainable forms of energy is easier said than done.

“There’s still a lot of progress that needs to be achieved for us to reach the goal (of sustainable energy access),” said Marc Jeuland, associate professor of public policy and global health. “In aggregate terms, there are about 3 billion people who are cooking with solid, highly polluting fuels worldwide, and about 800 million without electricity. The raw numbers are quite large, and there are also commonalities in geography.”

Jeuland joined an interdisciplinary panel of experts to explore the toll of energy use on human health and policies that could promote wider adoption of healthier renewable energy alternatives. The webinar, part of the Duke Global Health Institute’s Think Global series, took place on April 14.

Watch a full recording of the webinar below, or scroll down for highlights.

HIGHLIGHTS

Marc Jeuland, associate professor of public policy and global health 

“A lot of energy use leads to pollution, and pollution harms health.”

About the WHO’s sustainable development goal calling for universal access to sustainable energy:

“Like all sustainable development goals, it’s very ambitious. We’ve made a lot of progress on some goals, and on energy, there has been progress in some respects.”

“There’s been considerable progress on electricity access recently, but basically no progress on clean cooking globally.”

“Empowered people use more clean energy globally than unempowered people. There are important connections to equity.”

On his research to create a tool to inform energy policy:

“The goal of this tool is to allow policymakers and practitioners all around the world to think about cooking energy transitions and how to facilitate those transitions with policy interventions like subsidies, behavior change campaigns and bans on polluting fuels.”

On the obstacles to adoption of cleaner cookstove technologies:

“It is definitely true that people’s preferences are widely varying, and some folks put more emphasis on traditional ways of cooking than others. But really, in my view from all of these discussions with people, the overwhelming constraint that prevents people from moving toward cleaner technologies is the cost.”

Ipsita Das, research scientist at the Sanford School of Public Policy

“While some cookstoves may be more efficient than others, local availability, the strength of supply chains, affordability and a host of other factors determine what drives households to adopt these cookstoves.”

On the relationship between women’s empowerment and energy access:

“Women on average spend over three times more time on unpaid care and domestic work than men. So there is potential for access to clean and affordable energy services to increase women’s empowerment.”

“What’s equally important to study is the understanding of impacts of women’s empowerment on energy access adoption and long-term use. This is primarily because women are responsible for household cooking and may have strong preferences about which technology to use.

Charles Nunn, professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health

On his research into causes of deforestation around national parks in Madagascar:

A lot of the reason for this deforestation is the harvesting of wood for cooking. This population uses wood almost exclusively, and that’s true in a lot of Madagascar.”

“Not surprisingly, we find that particulate matter is really high in these settings. We also found really high peaks associated with kerosene lamps.”

On the need to consider community preferences when advocating for more efficient cookstove technologies:

“It really highlights the importance of these interdisciplinary approaches in global health, bringing in anthropologists and sociologists and others to help navigate those issues, as well as the partnerships we have with the communities and organizations on the ground.”

Kuleni Abebe, a second-year student in the Duke Master of Science in Global Health program, who conducted her thesis research on the health impacts of cookstoves in Madagascar

“The burning of solid fuels really increases the amount of pollutants in the house.”

“Our study indicated that reduction in lung function was significantly associated with being the primary cook and cooking indoors.”

Rob Fetter, senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

On the state of electricity access to healthcare facilities globally:

There is just so much we don’t understand about energy access and high quality health care.”

On data suggesting that 25% of global healthcare facilities don’t have access to electricity:

“To the extent that we have longitudinal data over time, the growth in access [to electricity for healthcare facilities] has been quite slow.”

“My sense is that many providers of health services are used to working in low-resource areas, and so they are used to finding solutions wherever you can. It’s not always clear whether solving an energy challenge is the most urgent challenge that faces them. In my mind, that’s another reason that we at Duke and elsewhere are trying to understand the complementaries [between energy access and health outcomes] better.”

Pamli Deka, associate director for WRI India’s Energy Program

On energy access in low-resource settings:

“This is a very pertinent problem which is faced by a lot of the developing world. It’s an opportunity for us to move on this concept of building back better by focusing on forms of sustainable energy.”

“In the COVID pandemic, we saw a lot of people moving back to rural areas. COVID proved to us that there is an immediate need to improve health, education and livelihood infrastructure across rural areas.”

“We have seen that when you empower people with good access to electricity, it also creates job opportunities."