What is a “Meal”? Comparing Methods Of Auditing Carbon Offset Compliance for Fuel Efficient Cookstoves

Stephen Harrell, Theresa Beltramo, Garrick Blalock, David Levine and Andrew Simons

No 250007, Working Papers from Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management

Abstract: Smoke from inefficient biomass cookstoves contributes to global climate change and kills approximately four million people per year. Credits for reduced carbon emissions can potentially subsidize fuel-­‐efficient cookstoves that reduce these harms. Understanding the accuracy of different methods to monitor stove usage is necessary to accurately target carbon credits and, thus, to curtail the environmental and health damages from inefficient stoves. This paper compares five methods of measuring stove usage: stove usage monitors that continuously log stove temperature; enumerators’ observations of cooking; household food diaries, weighing fuel; and household air pollution using mean 24 hour concentrations of particulate matter. We find statistically significant positive correlations between almost all pairs of measures. While the correlations are positive, the explanatory power of each measure for another is weak. The weak correlations emphasize the importance of using multiple measures to audit the changes in stove use and related carbon offsets.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35
Date: 2014-09
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:cudawp:250007

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.250007

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