Study: One in Three Still Use Dirty Cooking Techniques

According to a research released on Wednesday, around 2.3 billion people still cook over open flames or with simple stoves, endangering their health and the environment. In order to guarantee that every home globally has access to clean cooking by 2030, the International Energy Agency and the African Development Bank Group, who jointly published the study, proposed for investing $8 billion annually. The absence of clean cooking facilities has a detrimental effect on public health, sustains deforestation, and raises greenhouse gas emissions, according to African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina.

According to the paper, gathering wood and charcoal for cooking leads in the annual loss of forest land the size of Ireland.

The third leading cause of premature mortality worldwide, exposure to smoke from the burning of charcoal, firewood, coal, agricultural waste, and animal dung results in 3.7 million early deaths annually.

According to the research, women suffer the most from the lack of clean cooking since they are often in charge of gathering fuel, which prevents them from attending school or finding a job.

According to the research, although the number of people without access to clean cooking has decreased by half in China, India, and Indonesia since 2010, the situation in Africa has become worse and existing policies won’t be able to fix the issue in the next 30 years.

Less than 1% of what countries spent on fuel subsidies last year, according to the IEA and African Development Bank Group, is represented by the $8 billion in yearly investments.

According to IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, “solving access to clean cooking does not require a technological breakthrough.”

The ability of governments, development banks, and other organizations to alleviate poverty and gender inequality depends on their political will.