‘175 million households lack access to clean cooking energy’

Stakeholders have said that 175 million households lack access to clean cooking energy, which results in premature deaths due to indoor air pollution.

They argued that access to renewable energy and yearly investments will save lives, and $8 billion in net zero emission is needed, to achieve it.

They spoke at Clean Cooking Forum 2022 in Abuja, where the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, stressed the need for clean cooking in achieving a sustainable energy transition.

Aliyu said switching to clean energy through the use of modern stoves and fuels will transform lives by improving health, and protecting the climate and the environment, in which women and children are severely affected here.

According to World Bank research, 2.8 billion people globally do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, and over 1.6 million Nigerians die yearly from illnesses associated with smoke from cooking and open fires.

The minister said the government has recognised clean cooking energy services as the right step towards a sustainable energy transition to lower climate-harming emissions.

On his part, the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, emphasised the need for a policy that would provide manufacturers and distributors with a platform for generating markets naturally with high-quality and competitive cookstoves.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cooking, Ewah Eleri, regretted that 80 per cent of the population is still cooking with firewood and other fuel technologies that are injurious to health, as a result, 100,000 lives are lost to air pollution.

Eleri said the Federal Government has committed to a policy that would enhance universal acceptance by 2030, adding “we are pushing for domestic obligation by gas companies to supply Nigerians. We have a domestic obligation to support Nigerian households and others to switch from firewood to gas, and gas to electricity.”

Also, the Group Chief Executive Officer, of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, expressed optimism that the participants will expand opportunities towards a sustainable energy transition in the context of clean cooking for all in the country.

He said: “We are partnering with the Vice President’s Office and other stakeholders to establish a gas funding firm for injection of 20 million cylinders in the next five years, under the marketer cylinder-owned model.”