Beyond Fire: Backcasting

This report describes a participatory workshop conducted in February 2020 by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Hivos with residents of non-grid connected villages in Machakos county, Kenya. The exercise used a 'backcasting' methodology, asking participants to imagine a 2030 scenario where their entire villages used electricity for cooking and then determine the necessary sequence of changes required to achieve that goal. The study emphasizes the need to prioritize sociocultural factors—such as gender roles, cultural norms, and cooking practices—over a traditional focus on technical efficiency when scaling clean cookstove access.

• Traditional efforts to increase clean cookstove access have prioritized the promotion of technically efficient technologies while neglecting critical sociocultural elements including gender roles, cultural norms, cooking practices, and taste.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2020). Beyond Fire: Backcasting. https://www.sei.org/publications/beyond-fire-backcasting/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Beyond Fire: Backcasting. 2020. https://www.sei.org/publications/beyond-fire-backcasting/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Beyond Fire: Backcasting |date=30 June 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/beyond-fire-backcasting/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2020beyond, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Beyond Fire: Backcasting}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/beyond-fire-backcasting/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }