Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to households across Africa: an agenda for action

The document highlights the critical need to transition sub-Saharan African households from traditional biomass to clean cooking energy. It notes that approximately 700 million people currently rely on biomass, causing 600,000 annual deaths and significant economic losses. The paper advocates for a market transformation toward clean stoves and fuels, suggesting intermediate steps such as improved efficiency stoves and sustainable charcoal regulation, while drawing on evidence from Mali, Ghana, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

• Traditional biomass use for cooking is increasing in Africa despite decreases in other regions; approximately 700 million people in sub-Saharan Africa currently rely on it, a figure projected to reach nearly 900 million by 2020.
• The reliance on traditional biomass in sub-Saharan Africa results in 600,000 annual deaths due to smoke exposure and an annual economic cost of approximately 36.9 billion USD (2.8% of GDP), with 29.6 billion USD attributed to lost productive time.
• Achieving a transition to clean cooking energy requires a market transformation that may involve intermediate steps, such as deploying stoves that burn current fuels like wood and charcoal more efficiently and regulating charcoal production due to rapid urbanization.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2015). Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to households across Africa: an agenda for action. https://www.sei.org/publications/bringing-clean-safe-affordable-cooking-energy-to-households-across-africa-an-agenda-for-action/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to households across Africa: an agenda for action. 2015. https://www.sei.org/publications/bringing-clean-safe-affordable-cooking-energy-to-households-across-africa-an-agenda-for-action/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to households across Africa: an agenda for action |date=28 October 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/bringing-clean-safe-affordable-cooking-energy-to-households-across-africa-an-agenda-for-action/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2015bringing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to households across Africa: an agenda for action}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/bringing-clean-safe-affordable-cooking-energy-to-households-across-africa-an-agenda-for-action/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }