The push to end harmful cooking methods worldwide

Nearly a billion people in Africa, mostly women, spend hours each day cooking with fuel from wood, animal dung or agricultural residues.

When that fuel is burned, the toxic particulate is inhaled by people near the fire. Research has shown that this leads to the deaths of half a million women and children across Africa each year. 

On Wednesday, the heads of state of some 20 African countries gathered in Paris, France, to address the dangers of cooking over open fires. 

Dymphna van der Lans directs the Clean Cooking Alliance, a nongovernmental organization trying to improve the safety of cooking around the globe.

Van der Lans said this issue mostly impacts women in the so-called Global South because they often bear the responsibility of collecting and using firewood to cook their meals over an open fire. The toxic particles from the fire impacts their health as well as their children and even the health of their unborn children. 

While some governments have pushed for national programs to make sure that families — specifically women — have access to cleaner and safer cooking solutions, the fatality rates are still high in many African countries.

“One of the things that was significantly lacking over the last couple of years is a sense of urgency to redress this global issue and awareness,” Van der Lans said. 

At the Paris summit on Wednesday, the United States made an announcement to commit more than $2 billion toward clean cooking.

Van der Lans said increased concerns around climate change have led to greater concern about cleaner cooking methods worldwide. 

“I think very few people would be aware that the global emissions for clean cooking on a yearly basis are equivalent to the global emissions from the aviation industry,” Van der Lans said. 

Investing in cleaner cooking methods, she said, “immediately brings health benefits to the woman who would [be] directly impacted.”

There’s not a silver bullet when it comes to cleaner cooking, Van der Lans said. It requires much more of a conversation about what individual countries need to complete an energy transition — and to make sure that people from all levels of affordability can access clean cooking solutions, she added. 

The idea is to go from improved biomass stoves to actually using biogas, to bioethanol, to LPG, to ultimately using renewable powered grids for electric cooking, van der Lans said.

Cleaner cooking methods must also take cultural practices into account, she added.

“We know for a fact that there are different methods to prepare those staples of families’ diets and their nutritional intake. And so, absolutely, the design of these products really have to be centered around the users,” Van der Lans said, to make sure their needs match with the latest services and products.

Van der Lans said it was fantastic to see leaders at the highest levels of government take the issue of clean cooking methods more seriously. 

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Wonie Bio has made a strong commitment toward clean cooking in his country. 

And Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who co-hosted the summit in Paris, has shown tremendous leadership in her country. Tanzania has committed to a full transition to clean cooking by 2030.