Outlet: Kleinman Center for Energy Policy Blog | Photo credit: iStock
By Susanna Berkouwer and Joshua Dean

How effective are improved cookstoves subsidies? Using a randomized trial in Nairobi that accounts for additionality and impact, we estimate a cost of $7 per ton of CO₂e, making them more effective than nearly all other climate subsidies. Each dollar of cookstove subsidy abates approximately 200 times more CO₂e than a dollar of electric vehicle subsidy.

The goal of carbon mitigation financing is simple: to reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO₂e) emissions as much and as fast as possible. Doing so effectively requires starting with the cheapest, most effective carbon abatement opportunities–what economists call the “abatement supply curve”. Where do clean cookstove subsidies rank relative to subsidies for other abatement technologies?