Clean Cooking: The Overlooked Climate Solution That Could Cut 2 Gigatons of Emissions

The joint UNDP–FAO–UNEP report Advancing Clean Cooking for Climate Action reveals that transforming how 2.3 billion people cook could save millions of lives, empower women, and cut nearly two gigatons of CO₂ emissions annually. It calls clean cooking one of the world’s most overlooked yet powerful climate solutions, urging global investment, gender equity, and policy integration to ignite this transformation.

A groundbreaking report jointly released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), supported by research from the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Clean Cooking Alliance, and the World Resources Institute, reframes an everyday human activity as a global climate imperative. Advancing Clean Cooking for Climate Action argues that the world cannot achieve its climate, health, or gender equality goals without transforming the way billions of people cook. The report warns that over 2.3 billion people still rely on wood, charcoal, or kerosene, leading to 2.3 million premature deaths every year from household air pollution. This reliance also drives deforestation and releases nearly one gigaton of CO₂ equivalent annually, a burden that falls disproportionately on the poorest households.

A Hidden Climate Solution in Plain Sight

While cooking is often dismissed as a household matter, the report positions it as one of the world’s most overlooked climate opportunities. A complete transition to clean cooking technologies could cut up to 1.9 gigatons of CO₂ equivalent per year, making it one of the most impactful mitigation actions available. Yet, the report laments that less than one percent of global climate finance targets this area. A chart in the publication starkly compares the imbalance: trillions invested in renewables and electric vehicles, while cooking, the primary energy use in many developing nations, remains largely neglected. This oversight, the authors argue, is not due to a lack of impact but a failure to see the climate potential simmering in kitchens across the Global South.

Women at the Heart of the Clean Cooking Transition

The human cost of dirty cooking falls squarely on women and girls. They spend hours daily gathering firewood, inhaling toxic smoke, and missing education and income opportunities. The report’s gender lens is sharp and urgent: women are both the victims and potential leaders of change. In Kenya, for instance, a women-run biogas initiative reduced emissions, cut household expenses, and created new livelihoods, proof that gender empowerment can drive climate resilience. By centering women as entrepreneurs, technicians, and advocates, the report calls for gender-responsive programs that make clean cooking a pathway to equity, not just efficiency.

Financing the Shift: Carbon Markets and Policy Action

To scale clean cooking, the report calls for policy integration and financial innovation. Governments are urged to include cooking energy in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and align ministries of energy, environment, health, and gender in unified strategies. A diagram in the report illustrates how fragmented governance has stifled progress and how cross-sector coordination could unlock rapid transformation. On the financing front, clean cooking represents a frontier for carbon markets. Properly designed carbon crediting could attract up to USD 15 billion annually, channeling funds into affordable stoves, renewable-powered systems, and local supply chains. The authors stress, however, that credibility is key: only high-integrity carbon projects with transparent monitoring can deliver sustainable impact.

From Household Fires to Global Solutions

The report’s technical section assesses technologies ranging from improved biomass and LPG stoves to ethanol, biogas, and electric cooking. It finds that electric and biogas systems powered by renewables offer the cleanest long-term path, though affordability and infrastructure gaps persist in low-income regions. Transitional options like LPG remain important bridges toward universal access. The authors emphasize context-driven approaches, what works in urban Bangladesh may not in rural Uganda, and urge donors and investors to tailor solutions accordingly.

The report calls for a Global Clean Cooking for Climate Platform to unify global efforts, pool investments, and fast-track innovation. The authors envision a future where clean cooking is mainstreamed into climate and development planning, not treated as a peripheral welfare issue. They frame it as a question of justice and opportunity: a way to save lives, preserve forests, empower women, and fight climate change all at once.

The report’s final message resonates with moral urgency; the battle against climate change may well begin in the world’s kitchens. Clean cooking, it declares, is not just about modern stoves or fuels; it is about rewriting the story of development to include every household fire that burns cleaner, brighter, and fairer for the planet.