THE PROBLEM
The use of solid fuels in open fires and traditional stoves for cooking is one of the world’s most pressing health and climate issues, directly impacting close to half the world’s population and leading to more than four million premature deaths each year. Inefficient cooking is also a root cause of poverty, poor health, gender inequality, environmental degradation, air pollution, and climate change. Inefficient combustion of biomass fuels results in a range of health and climate-damaging emissions, including short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). The most significant SLCP emitted by solid fuel cookstoves is black carbon (BC), a component of particulate matter emissions. Since the atmospheric lifetime of black carbon is only a few days, reducing BC emissions can bring about a more rapid climate response than reductions in CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases alone. In addition, unsustainable wood harvesting also contributes to deforestation, reducing carbon uptake by forests. Fine particulate emissions from household cooking with solid fuels are also a major source of ambient air pollution. The global community cannot reach its goals of eradicating poverty and addressing climate change without addressing the way millions of people cook.
THE SOLUTION
Clean cooking provides tangible impacts at both the macro- and householdlevel that empower individuals, women in particular, to improve their wellbeing and the environment around them. Thanks to the work of the more than 1,500 partners that make up the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, nearly 50 million households have gained access to clean and/or efficient cookstoves and fuels over the past five years, with more than 100 million projected by 2020.
CO-BENEFITS OF CLEAN COOKING
Climate change and environmental degradation disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, who are living on the front lines of these global challenges. Clean cooking solutions address the most basic needs of the poor, while also delivering broader benefits. Scaling up clean cooking can address climate change while providing significant improvements to global health, as well as benefits to women’s empowerment and local economies. The co-benefits delivered by clean cooking solutions are beginning to attract the cross-sectoral recognition they warrant.
ADDRESSING A GLOBAL CHALLENGE
Nearly 3 billion people rely on open fires and simple stoves to cook their food that burn solid fuels like wood, animal dung, charcoal, and coal.
4.3 million people die prematurely every year from illnesses attributable to the household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels.
Up to 25% of black carbon emissions come from burning solid fuels for household energy needs. Up to 34% of woodfuel harvested is unsustainable contributing to forest degradation, deforestation, and climate change.
$123 billion in annual costs to health, environment, and economies in the developing world are due to the use of solid fuels for cooking.
(Source: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves)