Transition to clean fuels and technologies for cooking in developing countries: Does women representation in parliament matter?

Developing countries are lagging behind in the transition to clean energy for cooking, which is most often the responsibility of women. At the same time, women are politically under-represented in these countries. This paper investigates the effect of women political representation in parliament on access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking. The data cover 130 developing countries from 2000 to 2022. Ordinary least squares, two-stage least squares, instrumental variable quantile regression and quantiles via moments regression are used for empirical investigation. The findings indicate that the share of women in national parliaments fosters the access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. In addition, women's parliamentary representation improves the access to clean cooking fuels and technologies both in urban and rural areas. Moreover, women's parliamentary representation is associated with increased access to clean energy for cooking in all developing regions, except Sub-Saharan Africa. Likewise, women political empowerment reduces the dispersion of access to clean energy for cooking across countries. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of women's parliamentary representation on access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking is more important in countries with limited access to cleaner fuels and technologies for cooking. These results suggest that the political empowerment of women is one of the keys to a transition towards clean cooking fuels and technologies in developing countries.