Payments for Environmental Services to accelerate the transition away of charcoal: an experiment in the D.R. Congo

Last registered on July 03, 2025

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Payments for Environmental Services to accelerate the transition away of charcoal: an experiment in the D.R. Congo

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0016325

Initial registration date

July 02, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 03, 2025, 3:51 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Congo (Democratic Republic of the)

Region

North Kivu

Primary Investigator

Name

Sebastien Desbureaux

Affiliation

Centre for Environmental Economics - Montpellier, INRAE

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Christine Cikesa

PI Affiliation

University of Antwerp, IOB

PI Name

Lara Collart

PI Affiliation

University of Antwerp, IOB

PI Name

Nik Stoop

PI Affiliation

University of Antwerp, IOB

PI Name

Marijke Verpoorten

PI Affiliation

University of Antwerp, IOB

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2025-04-10

End date

2025-07-21

Keywords

Environment & Energy, Other

Additional Keywords

Clean cooking, electricity, payment for environmental services

JEL code(s)

Q42, O13, Q51, Q57, C93

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Despite widespread electrification in sub-Saharan Africa, the transition from biomass to electric cooking remains slow, with significant environmental and health consequences. In addition, the transition towards cleaner fuels often involves stacking the old and new fuels, rather than a full transition. This experiment (Targeted sample size = 680 households) tests whether combining subsidized induction stoves with Payments for Environmental Services (PES) can accelerate the transition away from charcoal in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where over 90% of households rely on charcoal despite having access to electricity. We implement a three-arm randomized controlled trial: (1) a control group, (2) households offered highly subsidized induction stoves with cookware ($20 for a $200 package), and (3) households offered the same subsidy plus conditional payments of $0.05 per kWh of electricity used for cooking, financed through carbon credits. The PES design directly transfers carbon credit benefits to end-users, addressing concerns about intermediary capture in traditional carbon markets, while incentivizing higher usage. We will measure the impacts on electricity consumption through utility transaction data and charcoal use through post-combustion ash weights collected over a 14-day period. Results will inform the scalability of electric cooking interventions and the viability of using carbon finance to directly incentivize household behavioral change.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Cikesa, Christine et al. 2025. "Payments for Environmental Services to accelerate the transition away of charcoal: an experiment in the D.R. Congo." AEA RCT Registry. July 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16325-1.0

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The experiment includes three arms:
T0. Control Group: Households receive no intervention during the study period. They will be eligible for any potential scale-up of the program at later stages.

T1. Subsidized induction stove: Households are offered an induction stove with a set of 3 induction-ready pots at a highly subsidized price of 20 USD. This subsidy is unconditional on the actual usage of the stove by the household. The total market price of this package, once imported in Goma, is estimated at about 200 USD. It is expected that VE will be able to recover the cost of the subsidy through increased electricity revenues.

T2. Subsidized induction stove with payment for environmental service (PES): Households receive the same subsidized induction stove and pots as in T1. In addition, we incentivize cooking with this stove by providing a conditional payment based on the usage of the stove – measured in kWh through a built-in Stove Unit Monitor (SUM).
Taking an anticipated price of 10 USD per carbon credit, one kWh of electricity can generate 0.05 USD of carbon credits according to the MMMECD. Households in T2 are offered a contract in which they forgo their carbon rights to a team of researchers from Montpellier which is working with VE in exchange for a conditional payment of 0.05 USD for each kWh used with the induction stove. The contract has a duration of three months. The payment is made at the end of each month. The money is transferred directly on clients’ electricity meters through the forms of kWh. After each transfer, the household will receive two text messages: one with the amount of the transfer (which they automatically receive when they purchase electricity) and one informing them that this transfer corresponds to the PES.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2025-05-21

Intervention End Date

2025-06-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Usage of the stoveUsage: A continuous variable indicating the number of kWh purchased (and in the case of T2, the kWh received) in the two months following their reception of the induction stove.

Charcoal consumption: A continuous variable indicating the weight of post-combustion biomass ashes, measured around two months after the intervention.

For compliers of T1 and T2, Stove Usage from stove unit monitors: A continuous variable indicating the number of kWh used by the induction stove in the three months following the reception of the induction stove.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Usage: Virunga Energies’ transaction data records the universe of electricity purchases made by the clients.

For participants in T1 and T2, we will sum up all the transactions made by the clients from the first day they were invited to pick-up the induction stove to 60 days after (included). For clients in T2, this will include the free electricity received as part of the intervention.

For participants assigned to T0, we will assign a starting date picked randomly among those included in T1 and T2. We will then sum up all the transaction made by the client between this date and 60 days after (included).

Charcoal consumption:During the post-intervention survey, enumerators will provide a 10L bucket to households and ask them to store their post-combustion ashes in it. After seven days, the enumerator will come to weigh the ashes. Enumerators will be asked to weigh the ashes three times and record each observation in the questionnaire. They will ask the participant to repeat the exercise for an additional seven days and repeat the measurement. Respondents will be compensated for their time (approx. 5 USD).

For each measurement, we will divide the total weight of ashes by the number of days between each visit. In case a respondent is not able to store ashes in the bucket during a specific day, we will subtract this day.

In case a respondent has not used charcoal a single time over the last three months, we will not give them a bucket and impute a weight of zero.

The final variable will be the average of the six measurements.

For compliers of T1 and T2, Stove Usage from stove unit monitors: Stove Unit Monitor: data stored for every hour measured over 60 days.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The study is a clustered, stratified randomized control trial.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Household (clients of Virunga Energies)

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

680 households

Sample size: planned number of observations

680 measures of kWh and charcoal ashes

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

255 clusters (groups of households living 75m or less from each others). Cluster size: between 1 and 24 households

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Using the standard deviations and intra-cluster correlation coefficients estimated in the initial RCT and given a significance level of 0.05, we estimate to be powered at over 99% for both electricity consumption and charcoal consumption to detect effect sizes like those estimated in the initial RCT. To detect effect sizes that are 75% of those estimated in the initial RCT, we estimate to be powered at 91% for electricity consumption and 97% for charcoal consumption.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB