The global challenge of clean cooking systems

Caleb Wright (), Roger Sathre and Shashi Buluswar
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Caleb Wright: University of California
Roger Sathre: Institute for Transformative Technologies
Shashi Buluswar: University of California

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, No 3, 1219-1240

Abstract: Abstract Cooking is an essential and energy-intensive activity. Populations in industrialized countries enjoy nearly universal access to electricity and gas for clean cooking, while about 2.5 billion people in low- and middle-income countries use solid fuels such as wood, charcoal, coal, crop residue and dung for their daily cooking. These traditional solid fuel cooking systems negatively affect the health and reduce the opportunities of cookstove users, who are disproportionately women and children. Solid fuel cooking also presents a number of detrimental environmental impacts, such as ambient air pollution and forest degradation in some regions. Access to cleaner cooking fuels such as gas and electricity is expanding, but is constrained by the higher costs and logistical challenges of such systems. This review investigates the technologies and systems that are currently used to cook food, with a focus on low-income populations. It identifies key challenges that hinder a global transition to clean and sustainable cooking. Finally, it reflects on the recent success of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) along with other fossil fuel-based cooking systems, and discusses a potential transition to renewable energy-based cooking.

Keywords: Clean cooking; Household air pollution; Energy access; Gender equity; Improved cookstoves; Renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1007/s12571-020-01061-8

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