World Energy Outlook 2007

Box 9.5: Household Use of Biomass and Coal
The proportion of the population using coal and biomass (everything from
firewood to manure) for cooking is one of the indicators used to assess progress
towards the Millennium Development Goals. The World Health Organization
(WHO) estimates this share at 80% in China (WHO, 2007). For biomass
alone, we estimate the figure to be 37%, or 483 million people. Most of them
– an estimated 428 million – live in rural areas. We project the total number of
people relying on biomass for cooking to fall to 390 million in 2030.
The use of these fuels in conjunction with inefficient stoves causes indoor air
pollution and, in the case of biomass, can have consequences such as local
deforestation and soil erosion. The WHO estimates that some 380 000 people
in China die prematurely every year because of indoor air pollution from the
combustion of solid fuels (WHO, 2007). This is a considerably greater number
of deaths than the corresponding figures for deaths from outdoor air pollution
(around 270 000) or from lack of clean water (95 000). These considerations
led to the establishment of the Chinese National Improved Stoves Programme
(NISP) in the 1980s to disseminate household stoves with chimneys. The NISP
was implemented in a decentralised way in order to diminish bureaucratic
hurdles and speed up payments. Provincial and county stove programmes
provided for marketing, subsidised training, a subsidy to households and a
range of other measures. Centralised production of critical stove components
ensured quality control, while local modification of designs ensured that the
stoves would meet user needs. China’s Ministry of Agriculture estimates that by
1998, 185 million out of 236 million rural households had improved biomass
or coal stoves (Sinton et al., 2004). The programme was one of the most
successful energy-efficiency programmes in China and perhaps the world’s most
successful household energy initiative. Financial and institutional support has
now tapered off (except for certain programmes targeted on impoverished areas)
but the NISP left a positive legacy of private infrastructure for producing and
marketing improved stoves.
China’s stove industry sells more than 10 million improved stoves per year, is
worth about $30 million to the economy and is growing at a rate of 10% per
year. From the 1990s onwards, however, there was significant switching away
from biomass to coal. As a result, 90% of manufacturers’ revenue comes from
coal stoves rather than biomass stoves (Spautz et al., 2006). While both biomass
and coal can give rise to respiratory illness, coal can also contain large quantities
of arsenic, lead, mercury, other poisonous metals and fluorine. Exposure to
indoor air pollution from coal fires is associated with a two-fold increased risk of
lung cancer among women (WHO, 2006). Further improvements in indoor air
quality will require both greater take-up of efficient cooking equipment and
better ventilation, as well as faster switching to electricity (via grid connection,
but also solar panels and micro-hydropower), piped gas, biogas, modern biomass
fuels, such as ethanol gel, and alternative fossil fuels, such as LPG and DME.
312 World Energy Outlook 2007 - CHINA’S ENERGY PROSPECTS