Local beer breweries in Burkina Faso absorb a considerable amount of urban woodfuel demand. Grimm and Peters assess the woodfuel savings caused by the adoption of improved brewing stoves by these micro-breweries and estimate the implied welfare effects through the woodfuel market on private households as well as the environmental effect. They find substantial wood savings among the breweries and, subsequently, huge welfare gains for households and reductions in CO2-emissions. Since woodfuel is predominantly used for cooking by the poorer strata, the intervention under study is, so the authors, an example for a green growth intervention with pro-poor welfare gains – something green growth strategies should look for.
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The data underlying this research was collected by the authors for an impact evaluation commissioned by the Policy and Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (IOB).