Driving a Sustainable Environment through Clean Cooking Fuels and Technologies
Ifeoma Malo*
There is no doubt that the lack of access to clean cooking remains one of the most discouraging development challenges we face in modern times. With cooking as a fundamental part of life and an activity that has both cultural and social significance around the world, access to clean cooking has become a difficult venture. This is most particular in developing countries where solid fuels like firewood, coal and traditional stoves are often used for cooking. It has been estimated that for more than two decades, the transition of clean cook stoves and biofuels has been drastically slow, especially in poor/developing countries. According to the current World Health Organization estimates, more than half of the world’s population (52%) cook and heat with solid fuels, including biomass fuels and coal. It has been estimated that close to 3 billion people, a population generally found among the world’s poorest, often rely directly on biomass–wood, crop residues, dung and other biomass fuels–for their heating and cooking needs over an open fire or inefficient cookstove.
The use of inefficient cookstoves and solid fuels accounts for a major source of indoor air pollution (IAP) and is also a contributor to outdoor pollution. Beyond pollution, the combustion of these solid fuels is similar to the combustion of tobacco in terms of the emission of particulate matter and gases. The mechanism of burning these solid fuels inflames the airways and lungs, impairing immune response and reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Indoor Air Pollution is considered one of the most insidious killers in many of the poorest areas of the developing world. According to the WHO, 3.8 million people a year die prematurely from illnesses attributable to the household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of solid fuels and kerosene for cooking. Among these 3.8 million deaths: 27% are due to pneumonia, 18% from stroke, 27% from ischaemic heart disease, 20% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 8% from lung cancer. There is also evidence of links between household air pollution and low birth weight, tuberculosis, cataract, nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers. According to Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, “Exposure to smoke from polluting, open fires or inefficient fuels — the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people in the developing world — causes nearly 4 million premature deaths annually.”
Furthermore, the combustion process of these fuels releases harmful, black carbon (sooty particles) and methane which are powerful climate change pollutants. According to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, “…residential and domestic fuel burning accounts for up to 58% of global black carbon emissions”. The use of these fuels also has broader environmental consequences; the wood fuel harvested globally is unsustainable, leading to forest degradation which reduces the ability of trees and shrubs to absorb emitted carbon dioxide from the air. This singular action contributes to the accumulation of the chief greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, causing global warming.
A 2017 World Bank report described Sub-Saharan Africa as the region with the highest deficit with access to clean fuels and technology, proportional to population with only 12 percent of Africans having access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in 2014. Furthermore, the report says that the increase since 2012 in the number of people living without access is also mainly driven by Africa, where each year the population expands by 25 million, while access to clean cooking increases by only 4 million.
The World Bank report further states that, the poor rate of adoption of clean technologies in Africa can be attributed to factors such as high initial cost of improved cooking technologies, poor dissemination of clean and sustainable energy technologies, inadequate regulatory framework, inadequate financing schemes and inadequate public awareness on the effect of IAP. Hence, changing perceptions and public opinion; creating pressure for change; building networks that support delivery of change into clean cooking and significant policy changes are germane to drive and accelerate the adoption of improved clean cooking technologies. With political will and clear integrated planning as well as measurements and controls around the adoption of Clean Cookstoves, the 2030 agenda of achieving sustainable development will be feasible.
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being); SDG 7 (ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all);and SDG 13 (Climate Action) by 2030 will therefore require a massive scale-up in the deployment and adoption of clean and affordable clean cooking solutions.
*Ifeoma Malo is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clean Technology Hub
