Journal article
Get out of her kitchen: A feminist critique of voluntary carbon markets for cookstoves in India
Energy research & social science, Vol.139, 104883
09/2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104883
Abstract
Biomass-burning mud stoves used worldwide are targeted for intervention because of their association with air pollution, deforestation, energy scarcity, greenhouse gas emissions, and harm to women. In India, emerging carbon markets and the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals revitalized longstanding stove improvement efforts. This essay examines the role of carbon offsets for improved cookstoves on the voluntary market. Despite criticisms of carbon credits on the basis of effectiveness and social justice, cookstoves have the reputation of being among the more promising type of offset projects. Are offsets the solution for cookstoves? This study draws from three methodological and theoretical approaches to argue against cookstove offsets for India: ethnographic holism; subaltern feminism; theories of quantification from anthropology and science studies. Ethnographic field research in India demonstrates both the ubiquity of stove stacking and the challenge of measuring it as required to generate offsets. It further suggests that traditional stoves support women's control over a technology necessary for daily life, which explains the persistence of old stoves. Moreover, the metrification of cookstove improvement raises ethical questions. Carbon offset trading financializes carbon emission reductions and prioritizes accurate measurement above other considerations. This paper argues that carbon offsets do not align with goals of subaltern feminist energy production, distribution, and use. Beyond cookstoves, this paper calls for genuine engagement with participants in the design of solutions, recognition of traditional knowledge in the pursuit of global environment goals, and explicit acknowledgement that technical solutions offered to, or imposed on, marginalized communities are never neutral.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Get out of her kitchen: A feminist critique of voluntary carbon markets for cookstoves in India
- Creators
- Meena R. Khandelwal - Departments of Anthropology and Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, United States of America
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Energy research & social science, Vol.139, 104883
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104883
- ISSN
- 2214-6296
- eISSN
- 2214-6326
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Grant note
- US Department of Education Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research University of Iowa
The long-term research that informs this paper would not have been possible without the help of cooks in Rajasthan whose experiences I share here and many people working in Indian NGOs-most of whom remain anonymous due to human subjects research protocols. My University of Iowa collaborators in various stages of research include Udaykumar, Matthew E. Hill, and Margaret Beck. Sailesh Rao of Climate Healers and Udaykumar generously shared with me the story of how they got involved in cookstoves. I am grateful to Sanoop Valappanandi, Kritika Kothari, and Arnima Jain for research assistance in Rajasthan, and to Vanita Ojha for translation between Mewari, Hindi and English. I thank Peter Blanchard for helpful conversations about quantification and Silvia Secchi for reading a draft of this paper and providing encouragement and feedback. The US Department of Education, the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, and the University of Iowa provided funding for data collection. All opinions and shortcomings are my own.
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 08/06/2026
- Date published
- 09/2026
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; International Programs; American Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9985218397802771
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