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Clean cooking
One in three people worldwide still cook over polluting fuels. This puts their health, livelihoods and environment at risk every day.
For millions of families, preparing a meal means breathing harmful smoke, spending hours collecting firewood and placing growing pressure on forests already threatened by climate change.
Clean cooking offers a proven solution that improves lives, protects the planet and creates opportunities for communities to thrive. Scaling access requires investment, partnership and political commitment.
people rely on unsafe cooking fuels
premature deaths due to household air pollution
Nearly one in three people worldwide still rely on polluting fuels such as firewood and charcoal for cooking.
The impact reaches far beyond the kitchen. Household air pollution contributes to serious health problems, while the demand for firewood accelerates deforestation and environmental degradation.
Collecting fuel can consume hours each day, reducing opportunities for education, paid work and rest, with women and girls often carrying the greatest burden. As climate change intensifies droughts and environmental pressures, these challenges become even harder for vulnerable communities to overcome.
Despite growing recognition of the issue, millions of people remain without access to clean, affordable cooking solutions.
Treating clean cooking as a climate, health and economic priority is essential if governments, businesses and development partners are to deliver lasting change at the scale needed.
What we’re doing about it
For more than two decades, Practical Action has been making clean cooking accessible across Africa and Asia by helping people adopt the solutions that work best for their needs and circumstances.
We support a range of cleaner options from improved biomass cookstoves to modern energy solutions such as electric cooking, recognising that the right pathway depends on local contexts, infrastructure, and household priorities.
We work with communities, businesses, governments, and financial institutions to strengthen markets, improve affordability, and remove the barriers that prevent low-income families from accessing cleaner cooking.
Our approach combines health, climate action, and gender equality to deliver lasting change, ensuring today’s solutions can become stepping stones towards even cleaner options in the future.
With your support, we can help millions more people access safe, sustainable cooking that benefits both people and the planet.
Partner with us
Corporate Partners – Emily Darroch
Institutional Partners, Trusts and Foundations – Victoria Ireland
