  Access to sustained clean cooking in India is essential to addressing the
health burden of indoor air pollution from biomass fuels, but spatial
inequality in cities can adversely affect uptake and effectiveness of policies
amongst low-income households. Limited data exists on the spatial distribution
of energy use in Indian cities, particularly amongst low-income households, and
most quantitative studies focus primarily on the effect of economic
determinants. A microsimulation approach is proposed, using publicly available
data and a Bayesian multi-level model to account for effects of current cooking
practices, local socio-cultural context, and spatial effects. This approach
offers previously unavailable insight into the spatial distribution of fuel use
and residential energy transition within Indian cities. Uncertainty in the
modelled effects is propagated through to fuel use estimates. The model is
applied to four cities in the south Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and
comparison against ward-level survey data shows consistency with the model
estimates. Ward-level effects exemplify how wards compare to the city average
and to other urban area in the state, which can help stakeholders design and
implement clean cooking interventions tailored to the needs of households.
