Burning solid fuels such as charcoal, firewood and agricultural waste in open fires and traditional stoves exposes families to air pollution levels as much as 50 times greater than the WHO guidelines for clean air. In Africa, over 1 million deaths are attributed to household air pollution every year and the numbers just keep rising, women and children are the most affected since they spend most of their time cooking with dirty fuels like charcoal and firewood using inefficient cook stoves. Just the tip of the iceberg; more than 923 million people in developing countries do not have access to clean cooking but rather use that dirty charcoal and firewood to cook, interestingly 19 of the 20 countries with the lowest rates of clean cooking are in sub-Saharan Africa.
These numbers show that 9 out of 10 people experiences indoor air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa and this is the only region in the world where those without access to clean cooking is increasing. Currently, more than 4 million hectares of trees are lost every year of which 85% goes to energy, This is twice the world deforestation average.
Zambia alone with a population of less than 20 million people is currently losing more than 300,000 hectares of trees every year because 90% of the country’s population uses charcoal and firewood together with inefficient cook stoves. The virtues of replacing charcoal, and firewood with clean, affordable cooking fuels and traditional stoves with improved energy-saving cook-stoves are well documented, from reducing exposure to hazardous air pollutants, lowering burn risk in children under the age of five, reducing fuel consumption costs and even and cooking time. However, affordability and accessibility of clean, affordable cooking fuels and improved energy saving cook-stoves remain two of the primary barriers to adoption at scale and millions of households still persist with unsustainable methods.