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A group of health professionals and advocates is appealing to the Minister of Industry to reopen a Competition Bureau investigation into the Canadian Gas Association's (CGA) 'Fuelling Canada' campaign. The applicants argue that the Bureau's decision to drop the inquiry simply because the CGA removed the claims does not remedy public health harms, deter greenwashing, or provide market clarity. They highlight a systemic pattern of the Bureau closing environmental and health-related deceptive marketing cases without formal determinations, citing similar outcomes for the Pathways Alliance and Shell Canada.

The research highlights the reliance of rural communities in Zimbabwe's Mbire and Muzarabani districts on a mix of energy sources due to the unreliability of the national grid. While solar energy is common for lighting and electronics, firewood remains the most widespread cooking fuel, disproportionately impacting women and girls through labour and health risks. The study notes a preference for gas despite high costs and the adoption of 'tsotso stoves' as an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly alternative to open fires. It argues for inclusive benefit-sharing frameworks and investment in clean energy systems, particularly from extractive industries operating in the region.

The study evaluated emissions from charcoal, kerosene, LPG, and electricity in Kibera, Nairobi. It found that charcoal and kerosene produce the highest concentrations of pollutants, while LPG and electricity produce low concentrations. Ambient PM2.5 levels in the households were 14.2 times higher than the World Health Organization's 24-hour threshold.

The report argues that India's reliance on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and piped natural gas (PNG) creates energy security risks and fiscal burdens due to high import dependence and subsidies. It advocates for a shift toward decentralized biogas for rural households and e-cooking for urban areas to align with net-zero goals. Fieldwork in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand shows that biogas is highly satisfactory and reduces firewood use by 70%, though high upfront costs remain a barrier. In urban centers like Delhi and Bengaluru, e-cooking is found to be cheaper in operational expenditure than LPG or PNG, with the potential to save the government up to INR 2.4 trillion in subsidies by 2050 under a high-growth scenario.

Indonesia faces significant fiscal strain and energy security risks due to its heavy reliance on imported, subsidized LPG, which is used by 84% of households. The report evaluates three alternatives: induction stoves, dimethyl ether (DME), and city gas. It concludes that induction is the only viable non-fossil option, offering health benefits and long-term fiscal savings if paired with electricity tariff reform and a decarbonized grid. DME and city gas are deemed economically unviable or incompatible with climate goals. The report provides a policy roadmap focusing on making electricity upgrades affordable, implementing means-tested induction subsidies, and reforming LPG subsidies to target only the poorest households.

The report examines the transition of cookstove carbon credits from legacy methodologies, which faced allegations of over-crediting, to more rigorous, CCP-approved standards. It identifies monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) as a high-concern risk due to complex human behaviors like stove stacking and the Hawthorne effect, while highlighting the role of new tools like MoFuSS and the forthcoming CLEAR methodology in improving credit integrity.

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) argues that British Columbia's current climate strategy is insufficient to meet its 2025 and 2030 targets, primarily due to continued support for fracked gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansion. CAPE highlights significant health risks associated with fracking, including respiratory disease and cancer, noting a critical loss of physicians in northeastern B.C. The submission calls for a moratorium on new fracking and LNG development, a ban on gas connections in new buildings by 2025, and increased investment in active transportation and public transit to address the province's largest emissions source. CAPE also emphasizes the need for equitable electrification and a just transition for fossil fuel workers.

The report finds that global progress toward SDG 7 is off track, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. While electricity access reached 92% in 2023, 666 million people remain unconnected. Clean cooking access stands at 74%, leaving 2.1 billion people dependent on polluting fuels. Renewable energy's share of total final energy consumption was 17.9% in 2022, and global energy intensity improved by 2.1% in 2022. International public financial flows to developing countries for clean energy reached USD 21.6 billion in 2023, though this remains below the 2016 peak of USD 28.4 billion.

The report assesses Madagascar's clean cooking landscape, where only 5% of households use clean technologies. It models two 2030 scenarios: a baseline based on the SDG7 Energy Compact and a 'Universal Access' scenario emphasizing e-cooking and biofuels. Key findings highlight that while bioethanol, biogas, and pellets have vast production potential, affordability remains the primary barrier. The transition could significantly reduce deforestation and avert thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution, particularly benefiting women who bear the brunt of fuel collection and cooking tasks.

The Energy Progress Report 2024 reveals that the world is not on track to achieve any of the 2030 targets for SDG 7. While 91% of the global population has electricity access, progress reversed in 2022, leaving 685.2 million people without power, with 83% of the deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa. Clean cooking access stands at 74%, but 2.1 billion people still rely on polluting fuels. Renewable energy's share in total final energy consumption was 18.7% in 2021, and global energy intensity improved by only 0.8% in 2021, far below the 2.6% target. International public financial flows to developing countries rebounded to USD 15.4 billion in 2022 but remain well below the 2016 peak of USD 28.5 billion.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is expanding its support for the intersection of climate change and human health, launching a USD 1.5 million Project Preparation Facility (PPF) grant to develop a USD 122 million global programme. The GCF highlights a significant funding gap, noting that only 2% of adaptation funding is currently allocated to health projects, despite 91% of countries prioritising health in their Nationally Determined Contributions as of 2023. The GCF has already approved USD 457 million across 13 projects with health co-benefits and recently approved its first purely health sector project, a USD 25 million grant for Lao PDR.

The document identifies clean cooking as an "emergency brake" climate solution capable of reducing global cumulative emissions by 10% by 2040 if annual investments reach US$10 billion. It highlights the severe impacts of polluting fuels—including 3.2 million premature deaths annually and the emission of black carbon—while detailing co-benefits such as improved maternal and child health, reduced deforestation, and enhanced gender equality. The brief calls for a shift from case-by-case funding to innovative financing mechanisms and national-level policy integration to reach universal access by 2030.

Black carbon (BC), or soot, is a potent short-lived climate pollutant resulting from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. The report identifies the residential and transportation sectors as the primary sources, with China and India as the largest emitters. It highlights a 'triple win' of reducing BC: slowing global warming (particularly in the Arctic and Himalayas), preventing millions of premature deaths, and avoiding trillions in economic losses. Key recommendations include scaling clean cooking in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, retrofitting diesel engines with particulate filters, regulating shipping fuels, and incorporating BC into national climate plans (NDCs).

The 2023 Clean Air NDC Scorecard reveals a significant gap in the integration of air quality and health into national climate plans, with an average score of 3.5/15 across 170 analysed NDCs. Low- and middle-income countries generally outperform high-income countries, with Colombia and Mali achieving the highest scores (12/15). Conversely, several high-emitting nations, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, scored 0/15. The analysis highlights a critical disconnect in countries with high air pollution mortality, such as North Korea and the Solomon Islands, where NDCs fail to recognise the links between climate action and healthy air.

The report highlights how gender and intersectional dimensions are rarely integrated into air pollution policy in the ASEAN region due to a lack of disaggregated data. It argues that gender influences exposure patterns—with women often facing higher household pollution and men facing higher occupational exposure—and calls for a 'data revolution' to identify vulnerable groups and design targeted mitigation measures.

The report finds that dedicated outdoor air quality funding is critically low, representing less than 1% of total international development commitments. While there is a significant pool of funding with air quality co-benefits, the report argues for more explicit intentionality in project design. It highlights a geographic concentration of funds in Asia and a lack of investment in Africa. The document also notes a positive trend where funding for air quality projects exceeded fossil fuel-prolonging projects for the first time in 2021.

The report examines the intersection of air pollution and labor markets in East and Southeast Asia, highlighting a significant gap in research and policy regarding informal workers. It finds that while formal sectors are regulated, informal workers—including street vendors and agricultural laborers—face high exposure with minimal social protection. Health burdens are highest in China and Mongolia for ambient pollution, and in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar for household pollution. The report argues that current solutions are overly technocentric and fail to address the social inequalities and structural vulnerabilities that determine exposure levels.

The Global Clean Cooking Program – Bangladesh, funded by the Green Climate Fund and World Bank, aims to disseminate 5 million improved cookstoves (ICS) by December 2023. As of May 2022, the project has installed 1,877,760 ICS, benefiting 8.23 million people and reducing 6.70 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. While the project has successfully established a market-based supply chain through 56 Partner Organizations across 61 districts, overall implementation is behind schedule due to COVID-19 disruptions. The program has achieved significant health impacts, including a reported 86% reduction in personal exposure to carbon monoxide and kitchen PM2.5, and has increased female staff representation in partner organizations from 15% to 21%.

The author contends that energy poverty in South Africa persists because the government defines 'access' solely as a physical grid connection, ignoring the critical barriers of affordability and reliability. While electricity is essential for small-scale economic activity, education, and health, the current cost-recovery model and an inadequate Free Basic Electricity policy trap low-income households in poverty. The document calls for a national policy shift to establish clear affordability benchmarks to prevent electricity infrastructure from becoming stranded assets and to unlock broader development goals.

The study analyzes five development scenarios for Kenya's residential cooking sector to quantify GHG emissions, health impacts, and fuel demand. It finds that shifting from 'modern cooking' (LPG and improved biomass stoves) to 'clean cooking' (electric, biogas, and bioethanol) can significantly reduce emissions, with the most ambitious scenario achieving net-zero by mid-century. Implementation of the net-zero scenario could avoid nearly 500,000 premature deaths over 30 years. However, the transition is hindered by high upfront costs, cultural practices like fuel stacking, and the absence of a comprehensive, sector-wide strategy.