How does unclean cooking impact the planet?

Cooking with inefficient, biomass-fuelled stoves emits greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming. Biomass can also be harmful to the environment and local biodiversity if the fuel used is wood-based and gathered through cutting down trees.

Wood and charcoal-fuelled stoves emit black carbon (commonly known as soot). This is a key contributor to climate change and sea level rise. Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than the more well-known greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), but it returns to earth during rain or snowfall. This black soot darkens the surface of sea ice and glaciers, increasing their surface temperature and accelerating melting. Melting glaciers lead to rises in sea levels, increased risks of flooding and longer-term risks to freshwater access in many parts of the world.

When wood is cut down and burned it also emits CO2. Trees and shrubs tend to be cut down at a much faster rate than their regrowth, leaving forests destroyed. Trees and other plants are vital for absorbing and storing CO2 from the atmosphere, so deforestation accelerates climate change. Deforestation also leads to biodiversity loss, as well as soil erosion which increases the risk of floods.