ISIHAK RABIU

The Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) focuses on achieving universal access to modern energy services and is also relevant for the achievement of several other development goals, especially those relating to health, environment, and education. In Zambia, efforts have been made through government policies and advocacy to promote the use of modern energy services for cooking. However, these efforts seem not to be yielding the desired result because the desired outcome in terms of the adoption of modern energy services for cooking seems to be far-off. This study examines the determinants of cooking fuels in households that are connected to electricity in Lusaka, Zambia using data obtained from a survey. The findings of the survey reveal that 99.6% of respondents had access to electricity and about 80% of the respondents used more than one cooking fuel, with about 61% using charcoal and electricity. For respondents who use only one cooking fuel, the number that use only charcoal is greater than the number of respondents that used only electricity. In all, the most used fuels were charcoal, electricity, and LPG (cooking gas). Several factors such as the cost of fuel, availability of fuel and other cultural and economic factors influence the choice of cooking fuels used by households. In spite of the efforts to promote clean cooking technologies over the years, the impact has been minimal because fuel stacking persists. The result of this study also supports the “energy stacking” theory of energy transition.