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2023-08-13 21:22:30

Clean cooking could save half a billion tons of CO₂: 2.4 billion people do not have access to clean cooking. They mostly cook with traditional cooking stoves, in which they burn wood and other fuels. As a result, they fail to meet World Health Organization indoor air quality standards. This causes emissions and air pollution, but is also harmful to health. It is estimated that 3.2 million people die every year, because they cook with traditional ovens. In addition, women and children in particular spend more than an hour a day collecting fuel. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. Only 17 percent of the people there can cook properly. Despite the negative effects, clean stoves are not spreading widely in the region. According to a World Bank report, the number of people using unclean stoves has increased by half in the past 20 years. That’s because the population grew while clean herds stopped spreading.

Researchers from the Clean Cooking Alliance have now developed the application OnStove, which shows which cooker is most suitable in which region. For example, it takes into account which places have access to electricity. According to the model, in sub-Saharan Africa the greatest benefits would be if two-thirds of households had a liquid gas stove. Especially in the cities, stoves can also be operated with electricity. The most remote regions would at least benefit from improved biomass stoves, such as those heated with pellets and extracting steam. This could avoid emissions as high as those of Canada, the tenth largest emitter in the world. In addition, more than 460,000 lives could be saved annually and healthcare costs of US$ 66 billion could be saved.

However, the hurdles to implementing this are currently high. “The cost of buying a new stove and the ongoing cost of fuel will continue to be a barrier for many households in sub-Saharan Africa,” says Marc Jeuland, co-author of the study. He suggests that rich countries subsidize clean stoves in ways that make them affordable or affordable even become free. This would require an annual investment of 7.5 billion US dollars. In this way, new stoves could be bought, network capacities expanded and the fuel paid for. $42 billion would be needed to electrify the region across the board.