Harmful culinary practices result in the deaths of 3.7 million people every year, with children and women most at risk.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which is leading the summit, 2.3 billion people in 128 countries breathe harmful smoke when cooking on basic stoves or open fires.
In a recent report carried out with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the IEA stated that these culinary practices result in the deaths of 3.7 million people every year, and that children and women are most at risk.
The problem “touches gender, touches on forestry, touches on climate change, touches on energy, touches on health”, the director of sustainability and technology at the AIE, Laura Cozzi, told journalists.
One-third of the world’s population cooks with fuels that produce harmful fumes when burned, including wood, charcoal, charcoal, animal manure and agricultural waste.
They pollute indoor and outdoor air with fine particles that penetrate the lungs and cause various respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including cancer and strokes.
These culinary practices are the third biggest cause of premature deaths in the world and the second biggest in Africa. In children, they are one of the main causes of pneumonia.
‘More bang for the buck’
Switching to clean cooking methods, such as gas or electric cooking, would save 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year by 2030 – roughly the amount emitted by ships and planes last year, according to the IEA. .
Changing old methods and practices, however, would cost billions of dollars.
The ADB aims to raise $4 billion to provide access to clean cooking for 250 million Africans by 2030.
That amount represents just a “small fraction” of the $2.8 trillion invested globally in energy every year, the ADB said in a statement released ahead of the summit.
But even this small investment would go a long way toward saving more in the long run.
According to the ADB, the annual economic cost of the time spent by women and girls searching for firewood is estimated at US$800 billion and health costs reach US$1.4 billion.
“Dollar for dollar, it is difficult to imagine a single intervention that could have more return in terms of emissions for health and development than this one,” said Dan Wetzel, an expert at the IEA.
This financial support is essential because many families in Africa cannot afford to purchase a suitable stove or fuel.
The IEA also recommends strong national leadership as well as grassroots efforts to change social norms.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
