Payments for Environmental Services to Accelerate the Transition Away from Charcoal: Addendum – High-Value PES Extension in the D.R. Congo

Last registered on March 23, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Payments for Environmental Services to Accelerate the Transition Away from Charcoal: Addendum – High-Value PES Extension in the D.R. Congo
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018175
Initial registration date
March 20, 2026

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
March 23, 2026, 7:57 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Nik Stoop
Affiliation
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
Sebastien Desbureaux
PI Affiliation
Centre for Environmental Economics - Montpellier, INRAE
PI Name
Marijke Verpoorten
PI Affiliation
University of Antwerp, IOB

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-04-10
End date
2026-09-01
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 is based on or builds upon one or more 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, households often engage in fuel stacking rather than fully transitioning to cleaner technologies. This study builds on a previously registered randomized controlled trial conducted in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where over 90% of households rely on charcoal despite having access to electricity. The initial experiment tested whether combining subsidized induction stoves with Payments for Environmental Services (PES) could increase electric cooking usage. In this extension, we introduce a higher-value PES treatment to assess whether stronger financial incentives affect stove usage. The intervention is randomized among a subset of households from the original treatment arms using stratified cluster randomization. Stove usage is measured using Stove Use Monitors. Results will inform the scalability of PES-based approaches and the potential of carbon finance to directly incentivize clean cooking adoption.
External Link(s)
Link to the pre-analysis plan of the RCT on which this addendum builds.

Registration Citation

Citation
Cikesa, Christine et al. 2026. "Payments for Environmental Services to Accelerate the Transition Away from Charcoal: Addendum – High-Value PES Extension in the D.R. Congo." AEA RCT Registry. March 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18175-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The initial experiment included three treatment arms:
- T0. Control Group: Households received no intervention during the study period.
- T1. Subsidized induction stove: Households were offered an induction stove with a set of 3 induction-ready pots at a highly subsidized price of 20 USD. The subsidy was unconditional on stove usage.
- T2. Subsidized induction stove with payment for environmental service (PES): Households received the same subsidized stove and pots as in T1. In addition, they received a conditional payment based on stove usage – measured in kWh through a built-in Stove Use Monitor (SUM).

Households in T2 signed a PES contract to forgo carbon rights in exchange for a payment of USD 0.05 per kWh, derived from an assumed carbon price of USD 10$/tCO2eq using the Gold Standard Metered & Measured Energy Cooking Devices (MMECD) methodology. Payments were made monthly via electricity meter transfers.

This addendum introduces a new experimental variation considering a higher conditional payment for stove usage. The new reference carbon price is USD 35/tCO2eq. Applying the same MMECD methodology, this corresponds to a payment of USD 0.18 per kWh of induction stove usage. The new PES round will replicate the original implementation as closely as possible, and will be implemented over a three-month period following the registration of this PAP addendum.

We follow the same clustering approach as in the original experiment. Clusters will be randomly assigned to the high PES treatment using stratified randomization based on prior treatment assignment (T1 vs T2) and stove usage over the three months preceding the new PES intervention. For stove usage, we will create a binary indicator for whether a cluster’s average usage is above or below the sample mean.
Intervention Start Date
2026-04-01
Intervention End Date
2026-07-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome is induction stove usage, measured in kWh through the Stove Use Monitor. We will analyze stove usage over the three-month intervention period during which the high-value PES is implemented, comparing households assigned to receive the high PES to those not assigned to receive it.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is a clustered, stratified randomized control trial.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
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
170 spatial clusters (groups of households living 75m or less from each other). Total: 448 households. Cluster size: between 1 and 24 households.
Sample size: planned number of observations
448 households grouped in 170 spatial clusters. Each household is an observation for stove usage.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
About 85 clusters high PES and 85 clusters control (no high PES).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Using daily stove-use data over the 3-month initial intervention period and accounting for cluster-level variation in kWh consumption across 170 spatial clusters (448 households), the study is powered to detect a minimum effect of approximately 0.20–0.25 kWh per day (about 25–30% of mean usage) at a 5% significance level and 80% power.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethic comittee of the University of Montpellier
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-23
IRB Approval Number
UM 2024-067
Analysis Plan

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