Investigating the Consequence s of Energy Transitions in Protracted Displacement Settings: Solid Fuel Dependency and IDPs’ Readiness

Abstract Looking beyond cooking energy provision in humanitarian response, interventions define the course of the internally displaced people’s (IDPs) livelihood. Energy transition in displacement settings often puts the bar high as the outputs are aimed to provide full use of low emission, healthy, clean cooking energy sources. By gathering data from protracted temporary settlements inhabited since 2012 by those affected by the Mount Sinabung eruption in Karo Regency, Indonesia, the purpose of this study is to look into how Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are switching to greener energy sources for cooking. A framework for determining energy choice at the household size was employed to depict the overview of energy use in cooking, taking into account the effects of the transition. The case of Sinabung displacement offered a perspective of the prolonged IDPs on humanitarian energy interventions and the national ecosystem toward clean energy behaviour. Even though Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) penetration is subsidized, a protracted displacement situation in Sinabung still reveals solid fuel dependencies. The LPG subsidy program, which was poorly planned, and the lack of readiness of IDPs to purchase and use new alternative cooking energy were the biggest obstacles to the overall transition process and caused the fuel stacking phenomenon to persist.