About a third of the global population —about 2.1 billion people — cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fueled by kerosene, wood, animal dung, crop waste, or coal. This generates harmful household air pollution, leading to millions of deaths each year, including over 230,000 deaths of children younger than 5. But the practice of using fossil fuels for cooking, particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, does not only impact people’s health. It also affects the environment, exacerbates climate change, and deepens gender inequality.
Health Impacts
The use of traditional biomass fuels for cooking leads to household air pollution, which is a major health hazard. It is estimated that household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels causes about 3.2 million premature deaths annually, primarily from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Women and children are disproportionately affected, as they spend more time near cooking areas.
Environmental and Climate Impacts
The environmental impact of traditional cooking methods is substantial. The burning of biomass fuels contributes to deforestation, forest degradation, and increased GHG emissions. The production and use of charcoal are significant drivers of cutting down trees in many developing countries. Moreover, the inefficient burning of these fuels releases black carbon, a potent climate pollutant.
Gender Inequality
The burden of collecting biomass fuels often falls on women and children, leading to significant time poverty and limiting opportunities for education and economic activities. This gendered division of labor exacerbates inequality and hinders women’s empowerment.
Economic Costs
The economic cost of inaction is staggering. The World Bank estimates that the lack of access to clean cooking costs the global economy $2.4 trillion annually. This includes health costs, lost productivity, and environmental degradation. Without accelerated action, Tracking SDG7: The Progress Report 2025 estimates, if the current trends continue, only 78% of the global population will have access to clean cooking by 2030.
Progress and Challenges
There has been some progress in increasing access to clean cooking appliances using green and renewable energy sources such as solar power, biogas, and ethanol or highly efficient cookstoves using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). However, that progress has been uneven. The number of people without access to clean cooking has continued to rise in Sub-Saharan Africa due to population growth and economic challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the situation by reducing incomes and increasing the prices of LPG and other clean cooking fuels.
Policy and Investment Needs
Achieving universal access to clean cooking by 2030, a target of SDG7, requires significant policy interventions and investments. Governments need to prioritize clean cooking in their energy planning and provide financial incentives to encourage the adoption of clean cooking technologies. This includes conditional cash transfers, results-based grants, and subsidies for clean cooking equipment.
ESMAP’s Work
At the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, ESMAP launched its $500 million Clean Cooking Fund—the first such fund to increase investments in the clean cooking sector. The fund aims to scale up public and private investments by co-financing with multilateral development banks, catalyzing technology and business innovation, and linking incentives to verified results. In FY2024, ESMAP launched CCF 2.0, which will replicate and expand technical support for the timely design and implementation of projects, develop new replicable instruments for hard-to-reach populations with no or low income, and coordinate resources to bridge the gap between the clean cooking knowledge ecosystem and demand in the field.
ESMAP’s CCF aims to galvanize political commitment, scale up public and private investment, and catalyze innovation in clean cooking where people use cleaner, non-air polluting fuels and energy-efficient modern stoves. The fund addresses deeply entrenched gender norms, consumer preferences, and behavioral aspects related to cooking practices.
The CCF provides:
• Upstream support by integrating clean cooking into World Bank strategy documents, such as Energy Compacts, Country Climate and Development Reports, and Systematic Country Diagnostics that guide Country Partnership Frameworks.
• Midstream support by providing data, tools, technical advice, and operational design.
• Downstream support by co-financing World Bank lending operations.
Contact: Michelle Carvalho Metanias-Hallack at esmap@worldbank.org