Promoting the Use of LPG for Household Cooking in Developing Countries

Task Force 4: Refuelling Growth: Clean Energy and Green Transitions 1. The Challenge Cooking with solid fuels presents some of the most pernicious challenges to the world, the gravity of which is seen in the staggering estimate of over 2.4 billion people with a primary dependence on traditional polluting (solid) fuels and technologies for cooking. [1] To illustrate, over 41 percent of the Indian population [2] and over 95 percent of the population in countries like Tanzania and Uganda primarily rely on solid fuels to meet their cooking energy requirements. There is sufficient evidence of the detrimental effects of using solid fuels on health, the environment, and gender equity and equality. The associated premature deaths from household air pollution number 3.2 million people annually, a significant proportion of whom are women and children. [3] A heightened mortality risk due to illnesses such as pneumonia, lung cancer, ischaemic heart, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases is extensively reported. [4] Non-renewable wood fuels for cooking cause a gigaton of CO 2 emissions, and burning residential solid fuels comprise 58 percent of black carbon emissions. They are also a significant contributor to household air pollution (HAP) due to incomplete combustion of solid biomass. [5] Research also indicates that this is a gender problem: girls and women face increased exposure to solid fuels. [6] Cooking with solid fuels delays progress towards five of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely, Goal 3 (Good health and wellbeing), Goal 5 (Gender equality), Goal 7 (Affordable and clean energy), Goal 13 (Climate action), and Goal 15 (Life on land).