Marijke Verpoorten, from Universiteit Antwerpen, will present her research work. 

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

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.