NOVAFRICA Seminar: Marijke Verpoorten, Institute of Development Policy – University of Antwerp

On Wednesday, April 9th, at 3:30pm (Lisbon time), in Room D -106 of the Carcavelos campus of Nova SBE, the NOVAFRICA Center welcomes Marijke Verpoorten from Institute of Development Policy – University of Antwerp to present her work on

“Keeping Gorillas in the Mist: The Environmental Economics of Accelerating the Adoption of Clean Cooking”

Abstract

Promoting clean cooking is one of the most cost-effective ways to advance global environmental goals while benefiting 2 billion low-income peoples. Yet, adoption remains low. In Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, where charcoal demand threatens carbon- and biodiversity-rich forests home to the last mountain gorillas, we test if environmental policies can accelerate the uptake of energy-efficient Electric Pressure Cookers (EPCs). Our Pigovian subsidy and related interventions led to widespread and sustained EPCs use over 12 months, which reduced charcoal consumption by one-third, increased support for environmental policies, and yielded social benefits that exceeded costs by a factor of 9.

Find out more about this and other NOVAFRICA seminars here .

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