Clean Cooking: Essential for Health, Equality, and Climate Action

Clean cooking and heating are pivotal to achieving goals in public health, gender equality, and

climate-sensitive development. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), household air pollution from cooking with traditional solid fuels contributes to 3–4 million premature deaths each year—more than malaria and tuberculosis combined. Women and children are disproportionately affected by the health impacts, and bear much of the burden of collecting firewood and other traditional fuels. Adopting clean cooking and heating solutions can catalyze transformative health and economic benefits for some of the world’s most vulnerable citizens. Moreover, it can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and black carbon emissions and thus help mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) has set the ambitious target of achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030. The most sustainable way to bring modern cooking and heating solutions to the hundreds of millions of families that are likely to depend on solid fuels beyond 2030 is to develop a thriving global industry in clean cookstoves and fuels that is constantly innovating to improve design and performance, while lowering stove and fuel costs.

Governments and development agencies are eager to test promising policy instruments that use public resources more effectively and efficiently to spur development of the clean stoves market. Traditionally, improved stove programs have relied on public procurement, a top-down approach focused on large investments in project inputs (stoves). Government entities have been responsible for deciding on the stoves’ technical specifications and identifying eligible suppliers, delivery methods, and households to receive the free or heavily subsidized stoves. Such programs have enjoyed the advantage of aggregating demand and accelerating implementation. But, with few exceptions, results have fallen short of expectations.