Vulnerabilities are getting in the way of transition to clean cooking

It is an intuitive finding that poor households will struggle to switch to clean cooking, but a recent report from India funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development finds evidence that the real challenge is sustaining the switch when it happens. The report is a part of the Cleaner Air and Better Health, or CABH, project and looks at the role of vulnerability in the transition to clean cooking. Its authors found that communities that are marginalized and are most in need of support face compounding challenges of poverty, caste, and gender. The report is based on analysis and interviews conducted in three slum clusters in Chikli which is at the periphery of the central India city of Nagpur. And while those surveyed in Chikli were open to clean cooking alternatives, and even had access to them, they often could not afford to stick to it for a sustained duration, the report found. “There is a clear-cut relationship between their socioeconomic and educational background, occupational background, and their vulnerability. So unless and until government addresses the allied issues, I don't think the government will be able to successfully ensure a complete transition to clean cooking fuel,” Sanjay Patil, the report’s lead researcher and a researcher at the University of Mumbai, told Devex. The report also noted that women are disproportionately burdened by the health risk of being exposed to air pollution. Apart from cooking, they also engage in hazardous occupations in marginalized communities outside of the home like waste picking which further exacerbates their vulnerability. Climate, health, and gender gains Air pollution from cooking smoke caused an estimated 3.1 million premature deaths around the world in 2021, according to the latest State of the Global Air report. This is around 38% of all deaths caused by air pollution, the report said. Of India’s 1.67 million deaths due to air pollution, around 610,000 were linked to household air pollution in 2019. In addition, when firewood is not completely burnt it produces a sooty material called black carbon that contributes to climate change as it tends to absorb sunlight and releases it as heat, raising the temperature in the process. Transitioning to clean cooking, for example, in the form of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, cylinders, would help with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including access to clean energy and reducing gender inequity. Currently, the world is not on track to meet the SDGs by 2030, according to the latest SGD 2024 report. This transition is low-hanging fruit, according to Bhushan Tuladhar, chief of party for USAID Clean Air program at FHI360. Tuladhar, who is based in Nepal, said this is mainly because of the triple health, climate, and gender equity gains this transition would bring. “This is a win-win solution, or win-win-win solution for all, and the fact that the solution is available and relatively inexpensive, so it's not [a] very high-tech solution that we need,” he told Devex. Countries such as India and Nepal have facilitated the transition to clean cooking through government programs. While they have been successful in pushing up rates of access to LPG cylinders, there are gaps. And as the report from Chikli showed, it is being able to afford sustained access that is the challenge. Men: The group that needs convincing Transitioning to clean cooking would drastically cut down on indoor air pollution and lead to gains in health, especially for women and children as they spent the most time indoors. “But whenever women are saying that we cough more, or we have frequent colds, or women who have asthma. … There is no understanding or acknowledgment of the fact that they need help from the household itself,” said Ankita Bhatkhande, one of the co-authors of the report who works with social impact organization Asar that commissioned the study. Even in terms of receiving access to health care, women were among the last in the household to get it, she said. Another key insight from the USAID-funded report is that the decision-makers on whether or not to switch to LPG cylinders are not women. “Female members [of the household] are responsible for cooking. They're also responsible for fetching biomass or firewood. But when it comes to buying the cylinder, LPG cylinder, the male members, they take the decision, so they decide about the priorities,” Patil said. This means for policymakers, the target group to convince are men and not women. Providing a bouquet of options In terms of solutions that would work, Tuladhar is of the opinion that communities ought to be provided with a range of options catered to local needs. In Nepal for instance the mountainous terrain makes it hard to carry heavy LPG cylinders to individual households. “We produce hydroelectricity, and now more than 90% of the households have access to electricity. So in that case, electric stoves could be a viable option, also because it is cheaper to cook on an induction stove now than LPG,” he said. He added that cleaner biomass-based stoves that are able to reduce smoke could also be considered in some cases. “Depending on the situation, these should be adopted and the option should be given to local people on what they would like to use,” Tuladhar said. Bhatkhande though is not so sure about biomass or firewood-based stoves. She said that in Chikli, such stoves were provided to community members by nonprofits but the quality was dubious and they were hard to use. While affordability is a major issue in sustaining clean cooking, the lack of awareness about the long-term impact of air pollution is also a factor, the report found. As a solution, the report urged policymakers to look at awareness programs to inform communities about the health impacts of air pollution. In addition, they could help connect community members with government programs that already exist but might be tedious to navigate. “If the government provides some kind of relief to these houses in dealing with allied issues including housing, sanitation, drinking water, toilets, electricity, or education to the children, or some kind of health benefits or creating awareness about government schemes as well as health impact of this use of chulha [stove]. … I think the government will be successful in providing in this transition to clean cooking fuel,” Patil said.