The Household Energy Transition from Global and Local Perspectives –

The energy transition is associated with different topics in the Global North and South. While countries of the Global North have to reduce their per capita energy consumption and at the same time to switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, countries of the Global South are challenged by providing access to clean and modern energy to their population. These processes take place at different levels and in different sectors. The study about the household energy transition in Mumias brings together global discourses about basic energy needs and energy statistics with an ethnographic view on domestic energy consumption in a rural town in Western Kenya. The ethnography reveals the diversity in household settings and challenges simple models of the ‘household’ or the ‘family’, which are also inherent in the dominant approaches explaining the household energy transition: the energy ladder and fuel stacking model. Switching the perspective to the individual and his life course, hence adding a biographical and temporal dimension, contributes to be able to explain when and how a choice for a certain source of energy is made. Awareness of people’s real life situations and challenges behind a simple statistical view is a key factor in order to develop adequate support programmes in the household energy sector in any country.