Economist Spotlights Clean Cooking

Economist Spotlights Clean Cooking and CCA

Clean Cooking Alliance – A recent article in The Economist highlights the importance of clean cooking and the dire risks of inaction, concluding, “Until the issue gets proper attention, millions of people will continue to die.”

That’s why the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) remains steadfast in its commitment to increasing access to clean cooking to families around the world, including by raising the profile of this undervalued and underfunded issue.

Why you should support the Clean Cooking Alliance

Ask most people about air pollution and they will think of jam-packed roads and coal-fired power plants. But toxic fumes often come from indoors. In much of the worldClean Cooking Agenda families still cook using solid fuels (ie, wood or charcoal) instead of with cleaner methods (gas or electricity). The household smoke that they create leads to almost 4m premature deaths each year, making it the world’s third-biggest cause of early mortality for women and children, after heart disease and strokes. Says the Clean Cooking Alliance

Chopping down trees for firewood or charcoal also hurts the environment: the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that it causes deforestation of land the size of Ireland each year.

Poor countries are the most affected. A study by the Lancet, a medical journal, published in May estimated that North Koreans face the highest mortality rates from indoor air pollution. Around 240 North Koreans per 100,000 died from this in 2021. The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, both in Oceania, follow with rates of 146 and 140, respectively.

Some countries have lowered mortality rates. Across Asia since 2010 some 840m people have gained access to cleaner ways of cooking. China, India and Indonesia have each more than halved the number of people relying on dirty fuels.

Progress in Africa, however, has been undermined by its rapid population growth. Between 2010 and 2022 the share of people in sub-Saharan Africa using cleaner Clean Cookingcooking fuels increased from 8% to more than 15%, but the total number of people without access to these cleaner methods still rose by 220m. While the death rate from household air pollution is falling everywhere, it is higher in Africa than in any other region in the world (see charts).

Clean-cooking programmes in Africa are woefully underfunded. “African governments and multilateral development banks have never made the subject a real priority,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA. Many African countries have recently rolled back programmes because of rising debt burdens, though some global fundraising efforts have picked up this year. Sex discrimination also hampers progress: women and girls are more at risk than boys and men from cooking with dirty fuels. In some places that may make reducing the risk a lower priority, according to research by the Clean Cooking Alliance, a non-profit.

Until the issue of the Clean Cooking gets proper attention, millions of people will continue to die.

 

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David

About the Author This technical guide was written by David, owner of Eos Solar Solutions, who has more than 20 years of engineering experience and over 5 years of practical knowledge of solar, wind, battery storage and off-grid energy systems. His technical articles are written to provide clear, practical information based on engineering knowledge and renewable-energy experience.