Energy poverty and cooking
One aspect of energy poverty is lack of access to clean, modern fuels and technologies for cooking. As of 2020, more than 2.6 billion people in developing countries routinely cook with fuels such as wood, animal dung, coal, or kerosene. Burning these types of fuels in open fires or traditional stoves causes harmful household air pollution, resulting in an estimated 3.8 million deaths annually according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and contributes to various health, socio-economic, and environmental problems.
A high priority in global sustainable development is to make clean cooking facilities universally available and affordable. Stoves and appliances that run on electricity, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), piped natural gas (PNG), biogas, alcohol, and solar heat meet WHO guidelines for clean cooking. Universal access to clean cooking facilities would have large benefits for environmental protection and for gender equality.
Stoves that burn wood and other solid fuels more efficiently than traditional stoves are known as "improved cookstoves" or "clean cookstoves". With very few exceptions, these stoves deliver fewer health benefits than stoves that use liquid or gaseous fuels. However, they reduce fuel usage and thus help to prevent environmental degradation. Improved cookstoves are an important interim solution in areas where deploying cleaner technologies is less feasible.
Initiatives to encourage cleaner cooking practices have yielded limited success. For various practical, cultural, and economic reasons, it is common for families who adopt clean stoves and fuels to continue to make frequent use of traditional fuels and stoves.
The term "clean cookstove" has often been used without defining what the term means.[13] Organizations vary in how they define "clean":
The WHO has criticized the marketing of biomass cookstoves as "improved" when they have not been tested against standards and their health benefits are unclear.[14]
Non-technological interventions[edit]
Behavioral change interventions, in reducing childhood household exposures, have the potential to reduce household air pollution exposure by 20–98%. Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) exposure can be greatly reduced by cooking outdoors, reducing time spent in the cooking area, keeping the kitchen door open while cooking, avoid leaning over the fire while attending to the meal preparation, staying away while carrying children when cooking and keeping the children away from the cooking area. Negative impacts can also be reduced by changes to the environment (e.g. use of a chimney), drying fuel wood before use, and using a lid during cooking.[37]
Opportunities to educate communities on reducing household indoor air pollution exposure include festival collaborations, religious meetings, and medical outreach clinics. Community health workers represent a significant resource for educating communities to help raise awareness regarding reducing the effects of indoor air pollution.[38]
2023 Reports on Clean Cooking Access[edit]
IRENA's Findings[edit]
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) released a series in 2023 indicating slow progress toward universal clean cooking, with 2.3 billion lacking access in 2021 and 1.9 billion potentially still without it by 2030. The series emphasizes the need for more investment and policy support for renewable-based clean cooking technologies—like biogas and bioethanol—which are crucial for health, environment, and climate but are often neglected in favor of fossil fuel options like LPG. Sharing experiences from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, the series calls for a strategic shift in approach to meet growing demand and align with sustainable development goals, underscoring the importance of scaling up renewable clean cooking solutions through targeted actions.[42]
IEA Report[edit]
The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its 2023 report, emphasizes the critical urgency of achieving universal access to clean cooking by 2030—a goal integral to health, equity, and environmental sustainability. The IEA estimates that an annual investment of USD 8 billion is required to overcome funding gaps and enhance the adoption of cleaner cooking technologies, including electric and improved cookstoves, especially in high-need areas such as sub-Saharan Africa. The report suggests that such an investment shift has the potential to avert 2.5 million premature deaths, create 1.5 million jobs, and markedly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The IEA affirms the right to clean cooking as a fundamental human right and argues that meeting this target is essential for steering the world towards a more sustainable and equitable future.[43]
Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) (2020). . Washington, DC: World Bank.
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