100% RENEWABLES

FACTSHEET SERIES

CLEAN COOKING KEY FACTS

Access to clean cooking not

only improves the standard of
WHAT IS CLEAN COOKING? living by reducing household
air pollution, but also enables
Clean cooking refers to all the methods (low-to-zero emissions) by which people women (mostly from developing
cook their food. Any cookstove (hot plate) can be referred to as “clean” if they run countries) to pursue economic op-
on electricity, solar, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, ethanol, and advanced portunities instead of spending
biomass cookstoves [2]. They are dependent on solid fuels, including biomass, hours in the kitchen.
wood stock, kerosene and charcoal to prepare their meals. Sustainable clean
cooking means transitioning to a future where cooking needs are met in a way
that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Furthermore, According to Global Alliance
switching to clean cooking from traditional biomass-based cooking would improve for Clean Cookstoves (GACC),
public health and reduce air pollution. clean cooking can SAVE 61% OF FUEL
COSTS for families and significantly
reduces emissions.
A CLOSER LOOK AT CLEAN COOKING

Cooking with inefficient fuels releases emissions like carbon monoxide, black
carbon, methane, and particulate matter [3]. Here is how inefficient cooking
affects our world:
3 BILLION OF THE WORLD’S
POPULATION (42%) relies on open
fires and simple stoves using wood,
dung, charcoal, and coal to cook
their food.
Traditional cooking methods are deeply
embedded in people’s way of life, which
is the reason why communities are
more resistant to change to innovative
clean cooking technologies and
respective methods.
1.7 MILLION CLEAN COOKSTOVES
were distributed in 2019 in Bangladesh,
that have reduced carbon emissions
by 3 metric tons of CO2eq [4].

93% OF HOUSEHOLDS
in Sub-Saharan Africa RELY ON WOOD
ENERGY for their daily cooking needs. An Ashram in India uses
83% of households in Sub-Saharan Africa solar thermal for
still do not have access to clean cooking. Sub-Saharan Africa
community cooking. It has
73 parabolic concentrated
solar reflectors that CAN COOK
50,000 MEALS A DAY and saves
nearly 100,000 kg of LPG annually.

25% OF BLACK CARBON EMISSIONS

associated with residential cooking
CAN BE REDUCED. In 2018, 53% of households in deve-
loping countries were using clean
cooking, whereas the rest of them used
charcoal fires or wood. If the clean
cooking policies are implemented
HOUSEHOLD AIR POLLUTION (HAP) is the aggressively with SDG7 of universal
access to clean energy, 31–73 gigatons
4th BIGGEST HEALTH RISK IN THE WORLD. of carbon emissions can be reduced
with a net cost of $128-$264 billion.

2.5 MILLION Pneumonia The clean cooking stoves cost about

DEATHS Stroke Lung cancer $15-25. If clean cooking is adopted
COPD worldwide, then there will be reduction
Every year HAP leads to of black carbon, a harmful climate
more deaths than HIV, Heart pollutant, by 8-20 gigatons of carbon
Cataracts
Malaria, and TB combined. disease dioxide equivalent.
Source
 Annual Primary Energy Demand Per Household
by Fuel and Technology (GJ)
120

100
100 Range of annual primary energy demand
(min-max)
Annual Primary Energy Demand (GJ)

Fuel conversion efficiency

80

60 5-20%
50 50

41.7
40
33.3
10-25% 10-25%
12-30% 25
15-40%
20 25 50-60% 50-60% 50-60%
20 20-50%
20
16.7 10 10 10 7.9
12.5 12.5 6.6
2.7 1.5
8.3 8.3 8.3
0

Slow Cooker
Three stones

Three stones

Pressure Cooker
Standard gas stove

Standard gas stove

Standard gas stove

Electric hot plate

Electric Induction Stove

Traditional cook stove

Improved cook stove

Traditional cook stove

Improved cook stove

Wood/Dung Charcoal LPG Biogas Power to Electricity

gas

Figure 1: Annual Primary Energy Demand Per Household by Fuel and Technology (GJ) [1]

FINANCIAL FACTS
Cost range of cookstoves and fuels (annual; per household)
1,400
$13 BILLION
Cost per household per year (USD)

1,200
648
Range of annual are spent annually in costs
909
576 household costs
(min-max) to health, environment and
1,000
economies in the
653
developing world due to
800 702
500
the use of solid fuels
600
584 385
for cooking.
454 321
252
351 261
552
492 216
Source
400
302

114
200 248 71
218 216 231
180 192
99

0
53 42 26 70 58 35
68
42 Author
Namrata Joshi - ICLEI World Secretariat
Three stones

Traditional cook stove

Improved cook stove

Three stones

Traditional cook stove

Improved cook stove

Standard gas stove

Standard gas stove

Standard gas stove

Electric hot plate

Electric induction stove

Electric hot plate

Electric induction stove

Slow cooker

Pressure cooker

Slow cooker

Pressure cooker

Collaborators
Rohit Sen, Laura Noriega, Kanak Gokarn,
Ashley Mwendia, Everica Rivera - ICLEI World
Power Secretariat
Wood/Dung Charcoal LPG Biogas to gas Electricity (SHS) Electricity (Mini-grid)

Figure 2: Estimated Cost Ranges of Different Types of Cooking Technologies (2019) Design
Olga Tokareva - ICLEI World Secretariat

REFERENCES
1. World Future Council. ‘Beyond Fire - How to achieve electric cooking’ [Online].
Available: https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/
Beyond-Fire_-How-to-achieve-electric-cooking.pdf
2. WHO, IEA, GACC, UNDP and World Bank. ‘Policy Brief 2’ (2018) [Online].
Available: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/
17465PB_2_Draft.pdf
Copyright
3. IEA. ‘Access to clean cooking’ (2020) [Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/ (c) 2021 ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability e.V.
reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/access-to-clean-cooking All rights reserved. The ICLEI World Secretariat holds the
copyright of this publication, including text, analyses,
logos and layout designs. Requests to reproduce or
4. World Bank. ‘Clean Cooking: Why it matters’ (2019) [Online]. Available: https:// to quote material in part or in full should be sent
www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/11/04/why-clean-cooking-matter to carbonn@iclei.org. ICLEI encourages use and disse-
mination of this report, and permission to reproduce this
material without modification will usually be permitted
without charge for non-commercial use.