Green Energy Finance and Gender Disparity: The Case of Mountain Areas in Bangladesh

This paper examines the relationship between electricity access, gender disparity, and green finance in the mountain areas of Bangladesh. We use a novel new micro-level survey data collected for the purpose of this study. We develop unique weighted indices and applying robust instrumental generalised method of moment estimation. The findings indicate that increase in electricity access (hours) is beneficial to empowerment of women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) districts in grid-connected and off-grid areas. Using a quasi-experimental framework, we find no significant evidence suggesting that women from grid-connected households tend to enjoy greater gender parity than women from off-grid areas. This is likely due to increase in adoption of renewable energy devices such as Solar Home System (SHS). Using a probabilistic random utility model, we show that a surge in different expenditures tends to supress adoption of renewable energy in poor households more than in non-poor households, given the high prices and lack of financial schemes to support the purchase of renewable device. The expansion of green financial tools and strategies at the household and macro level is necessary to advance the outreach of renewable energy in the CHT districts to continue achieving gender parity.