From Fuelwood and Fossil Fuels to the Future: An Economic Exploration of Cooking Energy Choices in Delta State, Nigeria

Household cooking energy in Delta State consists of unclean sources such as fuelwood, charcoal, and kerosene. These unclean energy sources pose significant health and environmental risks, including respiratory diseases, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, harmful contaminants, and even fatalities. The objective of this paper is to examine the factors influencing households’ choices of cooking energy in Delta State. A multinomial logit model was used and the empirical estimation reveals that the income of the household head (−0.457), occupation of the household head (−0.187), occupation of the household spouse (0.131), monthly expenditure on primary energy (0.477), and level of education (−0.330) were identified as significant economic determinants of cooking energy. The findings underscore the role of sub-national governments, non-governmental organizations, clean energy companies, and other stakeholders in raising awareness about the health and environmental consequences of using unclean cooking energy.