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Energy poverty can be seen as both a cause and a consequence of economic poverty. A low income cannot afford a modern way of cooking and leads to heavy reliance on inefficient cookstoves fueled by solid biomass. This in turn leads to a strong dependence on the fuels used, which sometimes means having to accept any work to afford the fuel, or not work at all and collect fuel instead. This makes traditional cookstoves responsible for a sizeable opportunity cost, when not directly responsible for a large chunk of a family’s income. The evolution of the main way of cooking with increased prosperity and development is often summarized in a socalled “energy ladder”. This model illustrates the fact that people rely less and less on solid fuels as they get wealthier, but that solid fuels are often still present in the cooking energy mix, at least partially, until a relatively high income threshold. It is also important to notice that the term “ladder” isn’t completely adequate, since fuel stacking (using more than a single type of fuel) is almost always a part of the transition.