Climate-friendly Cooking

Clean cooking solutions can ignite a healthier, greener Kenya by reducing carbon emissions, deaths and diseases from air pollution and forest loss.

Nearly 600,000 Kenyans will access low-cost, climate-friendly cookstoves through an initiative by Practical Action in partnership with Energising Development (EnDEv) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Cooking with firewood and charcoal is harming both people and the planet in Kenya.
Eight out of ten households still cook using a three-stone fire, which leads to deforestation, harmful emissions, and serious health risks. Cooking alone causes 70% of carbon emissions from Kenya’s energy sector.

Every year, around 21,500 Kenyans—mostly women and girls—die from illnesses linked to air pollution from cooking. This is over seven times more than deaths from road accidents. Firewood collection also steals time from women and girls and exposes them to risks of sexual violence.

While traditional wood-based cookstoves are common, Improved Cookstoves (ICS) offer a cleaner, safer, and more cost-effective solution. They reduce emissions, cut health risks, and save money. That’s why Kenya is prioritizing ICS to help meet its climate goals.

However, only 37% of households (3.7 million) use ICS, mainly due to low awareness, high costs, and poor distribution—especially in rural areas where they’re most needed.

Practical Action and its partners are working to change this by helping more families access clean cooking solutions that protect lives and the environment.

Our approach

To promote planet and people-friendly cooking in underserved counties, we empower last-mile entrepreneurs (LMEs), at least 60% of whom are women. These entrepreneurs are equipped to produce, distribute, and market affordable and high-quality Improved Cookstoves (ICS). The cookstoves deliver fuel savings of at least 30% for charcoal and 40% for firewood. 

We support entrepreneurs in building their distribution networks and increasing sales of ICS through hands-on training, mentorship, and the implementation of Participatory Market Systems Development (PMSD) so that markets provide fairer and more lucrative opportunities for them. We also enhance their access to capital by leveraging the Village Loans and Savings Associations (VSLA) model, fostering connections with financial institutions. Furthermore, by adopting gender empowerment strategies, we actively support and enable women entrepreneurs to seize opportunities within this blossoming sector. 

In tandem with these efforts, the ICS benefits are shared in behaviour change and awareness campaigns to boost their demand. Additionally, we work towards creating policies and a business-friendly environment that supports the principles of clean cooking.

Our goals

With this project, we aim to enhance the access of approximately 600k people to these more efficient, climate-friendly cooking solutions in four counties.

By reaching these households, our goals are to:

• Expand the distribution of the improved stoves and retail chains. To achieve this, we recruit, train and mentor people to become last-mile entrepreneurs (LMEs) and produce and install fuel-efficient cookstoves in new and underserved markets.
• Enhance the demand. We promote ICS benefits to targeted communities through culturally appropriate behaviour change and awareness campaigns.
• Enable a thriving market. Country governments are supported in embedding these cooking solutions in relevant policies and plans. And, as part of the Clean Cooking Association of Kenya (CCAK), we go beyond our project reach through advocacy, sector coordination, and knowledge management.