Propane market metrics: The need for clean cooking
2.3 billion people rely on charcoal, firewood, coal, agricultural waste and animal dung as fuel to prepare meals.
Nearly one in three people around the world still cook their meals over open fires or on basic stoves, resulting in significant damage to health, living standards and gender equality.
Air pollution from these rudimentary cooking methods causes 3.7 million premature deaths per year, ranking it the third-largest cause of premature death globally.
Women suffer the worst impacts from the lack of clean cooking. The burden of fuel collection and making meals typically falls on women and takes on average five hours a day.
If the world reached universal access to clean cooking. . .
Premature deaths from poor indoor air quality would drop by 2.5 million annually.
The average household would save at least 1.5 hours of time a day.
This would free up time for other pursuits such as education or work, especially for women.
The total time-savings globally would be equal to the annual working hours of a labor force
the size of Japan’s.
Global greenhouse gas emissions would reduce by 1.5 billion tons a year, equivalent to the current emissions from all ships and planes combined.
Achieving universal access to clean cooking would require. . .
Nearly 300 million people to gain access to clean cooking means each year between now and 2030. People in sub-Saharan Africa represent half of this amount.
An investment of $8 billion annually in stoves and infrastructure between now and 2030. This is less than 1 percent of what governments spent in 2022 globally on measures to keep energy affordable for their citizens.
Source: 2023 International Energy Agency report, “A Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All,” produced in partnership with the African Development Bank Group.