Behavioural factors that drive stacking with traditional cooking fuels using the COM-B model

Globally, 2.8 billion people cook with biomass fuels, resulting in devastating health and environmental consequences. Efforts to transition households to cooking with clean fuels are hampered by ‘fuel stacking’, the reliance on multiple fuels and stoves. Consequently, there have been few interventions that have realized the full potential of clean cooking. Here we conduct a structured literature review (N = 100) to identify drivers of fuel stacking and specify them according to a psychological model of behaviour, the Capability–Opportunity–Motivation (COM-B) model. We create a taxonomy of stacking and find that the Physical Opportunity domain accounted for 82% of drivers. Our results have important implications for intervention design as they suggest improving opportunity is the most effective pathway to adoption of cleaner fuels. The findings are used to derive recommendations about how policymakers and practitioners can proactively address drivers of stacking to foster adoption of clean cooking stoves and fuels. Realizing the full potential of clean cooking transitions requires an understanding of fuel stacking in which multiple fuels and stoves are used. Towards this end, Perros et al. analyse the literature on clean cooking interventions through a behavioural model and identify underlying drivers of stacking.