Clean cooking
Over 2.1 billion people still lack access to clean cooking solutions, leading to serious health, environmental and economic challenges. Traditional fuels like wood and charcoal contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, while exposure to indoor air pollution disproportionately affects women and children.
A transition to modern, renewable, clean cooking solutions is crucial to achieving SDG 7 (affordable, reliable, sustainable energy) and SDG 13 (climate action), along with other related SDGs. Bioenergy solutions can foster local value chains for biomass
production and clean cookstoves and diversify farmer incomes. They also enhance food security and improve nutrition. Moreover, the transition to clean cooking addresses gender inequalities tied to fuel collection and hazardous cooking conditions,
improving lives in both domestic and institutional settings.
GBEP's role
GBEP supports countries in transitioning to clean cooking by offering sustainability assessments, policy engagement and leveraging expertise from its global partners.
GBEP work on clean cooking focuses on:
- Sustainability of bioenergy value chains for clean cooking
- Stakeholder engagement across value chains
- Integration of clean cooking into nutrition and SDG7 discussions
- Advocacy for clean cooking in climate policies
- Leveraging climate finance for clean cooking projects
- Exploring intersections between clean cooking and heating
- Promoting clean cooking as a gender issue and part of a just energy transition
This Activity Group is co-led by Uganda and the United Nations Environment Programme.
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