Air pollution from rudimentary cooking methods relying on charcoal, firewood, coal, agricultural waste and animal dung causes 3.7 million premature deaths per year, ranking it the third largest cause of premature death globally, according to the report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), produced in partnership with the African Development Bank Group.

Women suffer the worst impacts from the lack of clean cooking. The burden of fuel collection and making meals typically falls on women and takes on average five hours a day. This prevents many women from pursuing education and employment or from starting a business that could deliver financial independence.

‘Clean cooking is a topic that rarely hits the headlines or makes it onto the political agenda,’ comments IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. ‘And yet, it’s a cornerstone of global efforts to improve energy access, gender equity, economic development and human dignity.’ The report suggests that universal clean cooking access could be reached worldwide by 2030 with annual investment of $8bn. ‘[This] is just a tiny fraction of what the world spends on energy each year. Tackling this injustice is affordable and achievable,’ Birol continues.

Basic cooking methods that are widely used by populations that lack access to clean cooking also contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In the last decade, global progress on clean cooking has been slow, with progress restricted to a handful of countries. Since 2010, China, India and Indonesia all halved the number of their citizens who lack clean cooking access. These efforts relied largely on providing free stoves and subsidised canisters of LPG. However, during the same period, Africa’s population without clean cooking access continued to climb.

‘The lack of access to clean cooking negatively impacts public health, perpetuates deforestation, and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Universal access to modern energy by 2030 is imperative and requires game-changing approaches,’ notes President Akinwumi Adesina of the African Development Bank Group.

To achieve the universal access target laid out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7, nearly 300 million people need to gain access to clean cooking means each year between now and 2030.

The benefits in terms of gender equality, health and time-savings from reaching universal access to clean cooking would be immense. The report finds, for example, that premature deaths from poor indoor air quality would drop by 2.5 million annually. The average household would save at least 1.5 hours of time a day, freeing up time for other pursuits such as education or work, especially for women. The total time-savings globally would be equal to the annual working hours of a labour force the size of Japan’s. And the reduction in global GHG emissions would reach 1.5bn t/y.

The study suggests that achieving universal access to clean cooking would require investment of $8bn/y in stoves and infrastructure between now and 2030. This is less than 1% of what governments spent in 2022 globally on measures to keep energy affordable for their citizens. Public and private finance have a key role to play in advancing clean cooking, especially in regions without the fiscal space to drive the required investment through public funds, it says. Concessional and climate financing will be needed to support projects in the poorest regions, notably in sub-Saharan Africa.

‘Solving access to clean cooking does not require a technological breakthrough,’ concludes Birol. ‘It comes down to political will from governments, development banks and other entities seeking to eradicate poverty and gender inequality. But today, we are failing women in some of the most vulnerable areas of the world.’