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Energy is a key factor in the economic development. Currently, however, millions of people across the world suffer from energy poverty, having little or no access to energy for cooking, lighting, heating, cooling, or using information and communication technologies. Objective of this study was to investigate the domestic energy sources for households and the impact of biomass use as a source of energy on the environment and food insecurity in the drought-affected northern highlands of Ethiopia. A total of 398 household heads were interviewed using a structured questionnaire, whereas 16 focus group discussions and 12 key informant interviews were conducted. Descriptive data analysis techniques were used to analyze quantitative data while content analysis methods were used to analyze qualitative data. The use of traditional biomass fuels such as firewood, charcoal, crop residue, animal dung, and biomass residue that can be combusted were prevalent in the area, which aggravated the degradation of agricultural lands. As commented by the majority of respondents, the move towards the adoption of modern energy sources was not common due to finance (98%), access (97%), durability (97%) and lack of awareness (93%). The findings showed that land degradation has been severe to the extent that no grain yield can be collected from crop production. As a result, people were exposed to both chronic and transitory food insecurity, and hence the majority of people make their living on food aid. In food-insecure areas, relying on biomass energy could increase land degradation or retard the speed of land restoration, which adversely affects agricultural production and food security. Investing in alternative energy technologies can improve the environment, food security, and people’s health.

The main objective of this study was to analyse the vulnerability of households to the impacts of climate change and factors that influence houses to be vulnerable in Ada'a Berga districts of western Shewa zone. To achieve the objective, study area and sample households' were selected by using multi-stage sampling procedure. Descriptive statistical analysis, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Ordinal Logit Model were applied to a set of primary data collected from 421 randomly sampled farmers with the aid of semi-structured questionnaire in six purposively selected kebeles'. The analytical results of descriptive statistics indicates that households that are headed with above 65 years of age, illiterate, less experienced in farming, with more number of dependent family members, and tenants who are not frequently visited with extension workers, lack of access to climate information, depend only on rain fed farming, no own land, no access to credit at all, no