Health and Development

Authored by: Kimball Chen

More Doing, Less Talking

It is better to ask what is a sufficient solution for a sufficient period of time—and then do that.

Those who want to do good often spend too much time on analysis and disagreement, hoping for perfect solutions to emerge out of uncertainty. The world must avoid talking without doing. Perhaps it is better to ask what is a sufficient solution for a sufficient period of time—and then do that. Clean cooking is a perfect illustration of a big problem whose solution is inhibited by too much debate, even though the way forward is now clear.

Cooking is the single largest use of energy in developing country homes. Clean cooking is a major objective of the world development community. Those who believe in evidence-based solutions now have available enough data and expert analysis to feel confident in planning, financing and implementing a scalable solution for at least 1 billion people: liquefied petroleum gas (“LPG”).

Health and development experts have concluded that, given the current state of technology, only provision of electricity or LPG has the possibility of providing clean cooking capability at scale. Biogas, solar, truly clean biomass stoves are all not feasible for clean cooking at scale either technically or commercially.

However, the politics and moral ambiguity of the climate change debate have delayed the deployment of LPG where electricity cannot be made available. For 1 billion additional people to do all their cooking with LPG merely means re-purposing 20 million tons—about 8%—of already existing propane and butane production to developing world home cooking. The insatiable appetite of the developed world for LPG to be used in plastic would barely be affected by redirecting LPG to clean cooking. The carbon emissions from cooking with LPG could be offset by a mere 1% increase in developed world auto efficiency.

LPG technology, market structures and business models, regulatory and policy requirements, and costs are all well tested and well proven.

LPG technology, market structures and business models, regulatory and policy requirements, and costs are all well tested and well proven. The time required to build LPG infrastructure is minimal and procurement is competitive. Supply of LPG is available from many places in a competitive global market. The incremental investment needed for LPG supply infrastructure and LPG consumer finance to create and sustain by 2026 another 1 billion users is about USD 20 billion. This compares very favorably to the USD 835 billion required, per a recent McKinsey estimate, to bring electricity by 2040 to all Africans.

Why, therefore, do those who wish to support development hesitate to support large scale rapid expansion of LPG markets?

The necessary objective scientific and economic analysis has been done—LPG is a superior and feasible solution.

We at The Global LPG Partnership (“GLPGP”) challenge all of you in the G20 and the world at large to focus on implementing LPG, the clean cooking solution for the transition period between now and an economically viable, green energy future. Stop Talking, Start Doing!

Kimball Chen Mr. Chen is Chairman of Energy Transportation Group, Inc. (“ETG”) which develops liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) and liquefied petroleum gas (“LPG”) projects. He presently serves as Chairman of The Global LPG Partnership, a UN supported Public Private Partnership leading global efforts to provide LPG to 1 billion people. Mr. Chen served as President of the World LPG Association (“WLPGA”), the global LPG industry association, 2012-2015. He advises governments on LNG and LPG policy issues and also serves on the International Chamber of Commerce G20 CEO Advisory Group, which provides policy recommendations to the G20 heads of state. Mr. Chen graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in 1973 and with an MBA in 1978.