Killed by Breathing

Cooking poverty affects 3.83 billion people across 71 countries, causing over four million deaths annually. The report argues that the current 'clean cooking' sector is fragmented and underfunded, with an annual funding gap of approximately $10 billion. It proposes a shift toward the term 'cooking poverty' to better reflect the scale of the crisis and suggests a 'Playbook' to centralize sector knowledge. Key recommendations include merging electrification and cooking efforts, utilizing carbon markets for small business finance, and adopting an incremental approach to transition households from unimproved to modern cooking.

• Cooking poverty is a massive public health and environmental crisis affecting 3.83 billion people in 71 countries, resulting in over four million annual deaths.
• The economic cost of inaction regarding cooking poverty is estimated at $2.4 trillion per year, comprising health impacts ($1.4 trillion), climate impacts ($200 billion), and gender impacts ($8 billion).
• There is a severe funding shortfall; while the estimated cost to achieve improved cooking for all by 2030 is $10 billion annually, the sector received only $131 million in 2018.
• The report identifies a critical need to rebrand the sector as 'cooking poverty' rather than 'clean cooking' to encompass a broader range of solutions, including harm reduction and incrementalism, rather than focusing solely on modern cooking.
• The sector suffers from fragmented knowledge and ad-hoc initiatives, leading to the proposal of a centralized 'Playbook' to share best practices and reduce barriers for new entrants.
• To reach the scale necessary for 3.8 billion people, the report argues that cooking efforts must be merged with electrification initiatives to leverage existing infrastructure and capital.
• Carbon financing is significantly underutilized due to regulatory hurdles, yet it offers a viable path to finance small businesses and improve energy and health outcomes.
• Behavior change is a primary determinant of project success; failures, such as the LPG transition in India, are attributed to a lack of understanding of end-user motivations and cultural preferences.
• Strong national governance is a key driver of success, as seen in Bangladesh's use of microcredit and localization, Nepal's biogas support programs, and Rwanda's integration of clean cooking with electrification.

APA

Kaluz, A.-M., Thomas, D., Hodges, J. A., Ghaffari, L., Rossano, N., Schott, P. C., & Guo, Z. (2021). Killed by Breathing. Sustainable Energy for All. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-07/Killed-by-breathing-2021.pdf

Chicago

Kaluz, Anne-Marie, Deborah Thomas, John Anthony Hodges, Lisa Ghaffari, Nicholas Rossano, Peter Clarence Schott, and Zhongmin Guo. Killed by Breathing. Sustainable Energy for All, 2021. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-07/Killed-by-breathing-2021.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{kaluz2021killed, author = {Kaluz, Anne-Marie and Thomas, Deborah and Hodges, John Anthony and Ghaffari, Lisa and Rossano, Nicholas and Schott, Peter Clarence and Guo, Zhongmin}, title = {{Killed by Breathing}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2021-07/Killed-by-breathing-2021.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }