Energy & Transition
Clean cooking
Access to cooking fuels and technologies — electricity, LPG, biogas, ethanol, improved biomass — that replace the health- and climate-damaging use of open fires and basic stoves.
Expert review openNo editor-accepted expert review yetDefinition
The use of cooking solutions that meet health, efficiency and environmental standards — broadly, fuels and stoves other than open fires or rudimentary stoves burning wood, charcoal, coal, dung or kerosene. Clean cooking access is tracked under SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) alongside electricity access.
References
>2 billion without access (2023); ~3.7M premature deaths/yr from household air pollution; Africa summit US$2.2bn commitment; data sources (WHO Household Energy Database).
Overview
What it means
More than 2 billion people still lack clean cooking access, and household air pollution — mostly cooking smoke — is linked to around 3. 7 million premature deaths a year, with the burden falling on women and children who cook and gather fuel. The issue bundles health, gender (time poverty from fuel collection), climate (black carbon, deforestation) and development.
Progress has historically lagged electrification badly; the IEA's 2024 "Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All" and the first Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa (US$2. 2 billion committed) mark its elevation into mainstream energy-transition policy. Carbon finance increasingly supports stove and fuel programmes — with integrity questions over cookstove credit baselines prompting methodology revisions.
How it is used
Governments set clean-cooking strategies and subsidies (e. g. LPG programmes); development finance funds distribution and market-building; carbon credits channel finance to improved cookstoves; WHO/IEA databases track access and emissions.
Why it matters
Clean cooking is one of the starkest intersections of energy poverty, public health and gender inequality — an SDG 7 pillar where the transition is furthest behind.
Review
Public comments appear only after editor acceptance. Draft comments stay in the review queue.
Reviewers choose the definition or an overview paragraph, leave a comment or replacement, and attach evidence or a source link.
Editors compare reviewer cards side by side. AI may help find agreement, conflicts, unsupported claims and possible source issues.
Only an editor-accepted synthesis changes the public page. Reviewer identities are shown only with consent and verification.
Submitted reviews stay private until accepted.
Loading verified endorsements… Endorsements are not votes and never determine publication.
Endorse this definition
Endorse the exact version shown here. This is not a vote, and publication remains an editorial decision.
Review board
Comment on a specific line. Each reviewer stays separate until an editor accepts a merged draft.
Each person comments on the definition or overview in their own draft card, with role, evidence and suggested wording kept together.
AI can compare comments against the current text, flag conflicting claims, surface missing evidence and identify where reviewers agree.
An editor merges compatible suggestions into a draft change, checks sources, records disagreements and decides what can be published.