Household Characteristics and Energy Provision of Rural Households in Central Nepal

Access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services is the primary aim of Sustainable Development Goal 7 and underpins other SDGs for improving health and welfare. In keeping with the SDG objectives, national governments and development agencies have been advocating reduction of households’ dependency on traditional sources of energy and encourage the transition to clean energy. Whilst policy interventions for this have had some success, a large proportion of households, especially in the rural areas of developing countries still continue to face energy shortages and lack of access to clean energy continues to be a major developmental challenge. This study investigates the energy use of 295 rural households in three rural villages in central Nepal. Results demonstrate that households continue to depend on traditional sources of energy with limited access to clean energy. Furthermore, access to clean energy amongst households in rural Nepal is determined by households and community socio-economic status. The paper argues that much more needs to be done to enhance households’ access to clean energy and reduce their dependency on traditional sources of energy and the distributional implications of such measures need to be properly considered.