1. Importance of clean cook stove dissemination in India
In India Household Air Pollution (HAP) is a significant public health, environmental, gender, and
livelihoods issue (but least known to people) in the country— 30% of the 4.3 million global
premature HAP deaths occur in India every year. According to World Health Organization recent
estimates and more than 800 million poor people who are lives in rural areas most of them belonging
related agricultural communities are impacted by exposure to HAP in the India.
Population using solid fuels for cooking - 64%
Number of people affected by HAP - 801,369,341
Number of deaths per year from HAP - 1,022,126
Use of Solid Fuel for Cooking Causes Health Harm
Daily exposure to toxic smoke from traditional cooking practices is one of the world’s biggest – but
least well-known killers. Penetrating deep into the lungs of its victims, this acid smoke causes a range
of deadly chronic and acute health effects such as child pneumonia, lung cancer, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, and heart disease, as well as low birth-weights in children born to mothers whose
pregnancies are spent breathing toxic fumes from traditional cook stoves. The evidence is robust and
compelling: exposure to household air pollution (HAP) is responsible for a staggering number of
preventable illnesses and deaths each year. Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates that exposure to smoke from the simple act of cooking constitutes the fourth leading risk
factor for disease in developing countries, and causes 4.3 million premature deaths per year –
exceeding deaths attributable to malaria or tuberculosis. In addition, tens of millions more fall sick
with illnesses that could readily be prevented with improved adoption of clean and efficient cook
stoves and fuels.
Exposure to these toxic fumes is greatest among women and young children, who spend a
disproportionate amount of time near open fires or traditional cook stoves tending to the family meal,
or schoolchildren who may study by the weak light of an open flame. Typical wood-fired cook stoves
and open fires emit small particles, carbon monoxide, and other noxious fumes that are up to 100
times higher than the recommended limits set by WHO, and in some settings, considerably higher.
The illnesses caused by smoke exposure from toxic cooking methods lead to serious problems for
the health and livelihoods of these families, hampering their ability to escape grinding poverty.
Women in developing countries are at risk of head and spinal injuries, and pregnancy complications
from the strenuous task of carrying heavy loads of firewood or other fuels, and may also suffer from
gender-based violence, animal attacks, dehydration, and skin disorders. Frequent exposure to cook
stove smoke can also cause disabling health impacts like cataracts, and is the leading cause of
blindness in developing countries. Health effects are especially deadly for children under the age of
five in developing countries: nearly half of all pneumonia deaths among this age group occur as a
result of smoke exposure.
Burns from open fires and unsafe cook stoves are another insidious risk faced by poor households
dependent on kerosene, open fires, and unstable metal or clay cook stoves, contributing to a
substantial percentage of the estimated 195,000 burn deaths that occur annually. Because burns
require prompt and sophisticated medical intervention often lacking in remote areas of the world, such
injuries often result in debilitating scarring and loss of movement in their victims.
Use of Solid Fuel for Cooking Causes Environmental Harm
Nearly three billion people around the world burn wood, charcoal, animal dung, or coal in open fires
or in inefficient stoves for daily cooking and heating. This reliance on inefficient cook stoves and fuels
leads to a wide variety of environmental problems including deforestation, air pollution, and climate
change.

2. Burning solid fuels in inefficient cook stoves releases toxic pollutants into the air leading to levels of
household air pollution which often far exceed World Health Organization health-based guidelines.
Unfortunately, the potential for harm does not stop when smoke leaves the home. Instead, in many
areas, fine particulate emissions from household cooking with solid fuels are a major source of
ambient pollution. Indeed, according to a recent study, household air pollution accounts for 12% of
ambient air pollution globally. The ambient pollution which occurs as a result of household cooking
with solid fuels has major implications for both human health and the environment.
In addition to deforestation and air pollution, burning solid fuels releases emissions of some of the
most important contributors to global climate change: carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, and
other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). Unsustainable wood harvesting also contributes to
deforestation, reducing carbon uptake by forests.
Black carbon, which results from incomplete combustion, is estimated to contribute the equivalent of
25 to 50% of carbon dioxide warming globally, and residential solid fuel burning accounts for up to
25% of global black carbon emissions, about 84% of which is from households in developing
countries. In South Asia, for example, more than half of black carbon comes from the use of
inefficient cook stoves. Black carbon also disrupts the monsoon and accelerates melting of the
Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers. As a result, water availability and food security are threatened for
millions of people. These problems are compounded by crop damage from ozone produced in part by
cook stove emissions and from surface dimming, as airborne black carbon intercepts sunlight.
Pure black carbon is a significant climate pollutant, with some studies suggesting it is responsible for
up to 20 percent of climate change. It is also a major component of the tiny particulate matter known
as PM2.5 that is now one of the most common measures for air pollution.
About a quarter of the world's black carbon pollution comes from cook stoves, with the rest released
by car exhaust, forest fires, agricultural burning and other sources.
But black carbon, the product of incomplete combustion, is rarely released alone. It depends on
what's being burnt, but it usually comes with a messy cocktail of other polluting compounds including
organic carbon and sulfates, which can actually have the opposite effect on climate by limiting the rise
in temperatures.
The climate-change benefits of replacing traditional cook stoves are even more muddled because
common replacements also pollute. Gas stoves create more emissions of methane, a highly potent
greenhouse gas. Emissions from electric stoves depend on how the electricity is generated; in India,
it's largely from coal, another major contributor to global warming.
If rural people traditional stove replaced with LPG gas stove, there will be elimination of using
agricultural residue as a fuel for their cooking needs, it again lead to agricultural burning which gives
same amount of pollution, so it is better to provide them renewable energy based clean cooking
stoves, Clean cooking stoves indirectly helps to reduces huge amount subsidy money spend for LPG
for cooking purpose.
Benefits of Clean Cooking Solutions
Many of today’s more efficient cook stoves have been shown to reduce fuel use by 30-60%, resulting
in fewer greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions and reducing impacts on forests, habitats, and
biodiversity. Recent evidence also demonstrates that advanced (efficient and low emission) cook
stoves and fuels can reduce black carbon emissions by 50-90%. Since the atmospheric lifetime of
black carbon is only a few days, reducing black carbon emissions can bring about a more rapid
climate response than reductions in carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases alone. In
addition to having an immediate impact on the climate, reducing black carbon emissions would have
a regional effect.

3. Studies show that controlling both short-lived climate pollutants and long-lived greenhouse gases can
increase the chances of limiting global temperature rise to below 2ºC, a long-term international goal
for avoiding the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
Clean Cooking Solutions Can Bring Health Benefits
While a range of social and environmental benefits can be achieved through the adoption of clean
cook stoves and fuels, research evidence focused on children’s pneumonia suggests that dramatic
reductions in exposures are required to achieve health benefits. As a result, substantial health
benefits can likely only be achieved with intensive, near exclusive adoption of extremely low emission
technologies.
The sustained use of clean cook stoves and fuels can dramatically reduce smoke emissions, and
resulting exposure, which can reduce the burden of disease associated with household air pollution.
Reliance on biomass for cooking and heating forces women and children to spend hours each week
collecting wood, time that could be better spent on income generation, education, or other activities.
Where fuel must be purchased, primarily in urban areas, families struggling to meet their basic needs
can pay as much as one-third of their income to purchase sufficient fuel to cook their daily meal.
Clean Cooking Solutions Improve Livelihoods
Replacing traditional cook stoves with more efficient technologies saves households time and money.
In addition the clean cook stove and fuel value chain offers new pathways for local economic
empowerment. Women can also catalyze the market as clean energy entrepreneurs by leading
efforts to develop effective, culturally-appropriate, and sustainable solutions. Women entrepreneurs
are an untapped resource and leveraging women’s strengths is a huge opportunity for the sector.
Women’s networks can open doors for clean energy technology businesses and provide access to
consumers in hard-to-reach markets and women distributors can often better understand the needs of
other women and more easily approach their clients regarding the health, economic, and other
benefits of clean cook stoves and fuels.
Woman Empowerment.
Three billion people, or 40% of the world population, rely on traditional use of biomass for cooking.
The rural poor, mostly women, largely only have access to fuels that are inefficient in converting to
energy. Lack of access to cooking fuel forces women and children to spend many hours gathering
fuel - up to 5 hours per day- or spend significant household income purchasing fuel. Women provide
91% of households’ total efforts in collecting fuel and water, and women have an average working
day of 11-14 hours, compared to 10 hours on average for men. A reduction in time spent collecting
fuel and cooking enables women to spend more time with their children, tend to other responsibilities,
enhance existing economic opportunities, and pursue income-generating or educational opportunities
and leisure activities and rest – all of which contribute to poverty alleviation.
Women Are Crucial to Clean Cooking Solutions
Women play a crucial role in the widespread adoption and use of clean household cooking solutions
because of their central responsibility for managing household energy and cooking. As consumers
and users of cook stoves, women are not just victims but a critical component of the sector’s ability to
scale. Women must be fully integrated into the process of designing products and solutions because
without their opinions and input, products will not meet their needs and will not be used.
This issue doesn’t just empower women economically, it empowers them socially and it changes the
lives of their families. It’s a very simple thing. It’s about cooking. And once we can get together to
improve cooking, there is so much more that can happen.

4. 22 OCTOBER 2015 | GENEVA – A new World Health Organization report highlights the urgent need to reduce emissions of black carbon, ozone and
methane - as well as carbon dioxide – which all contribute to climate change. Black carbon, ozone and methane – f requently described as short-liv ed
climate pollutants (SLCPs) - not only produce a strong global warming ef f ect, they contribute signif icantly to the more than 7 million premature deaths
annually linked to air pollution.
The report, “Reducing global health risks through mitigation of short-liv ed climate pollutants”, produced in collaboration with the Climate and Clean Air
Coalition to Reduce Short-Liv ed Climate Pollutants, rev eals that interv entions to cut SLCPs can reduce disease and death and contribute to f ood
security , improv e diets and increase phy sical activ ity.
“Ev ery day , these pollutants threaten the health of men, women and children,” say s Dr Flav ia Bustreo, Assistant Director-General at WHO. “For the f irst
time, this report recommends actions that countries, health and env ironment ministries, and cities can take right now to reduce emissions, protect
health and av oid illness and premature deaths, which of ten take the greatest toll on the most v ulnerable.”
"Quick action to reduce black carbon, methane and other ozone precursors are much needed now, " say s Helena Molin Valdés, head of the UNEP-
hosted CCAC. “We know that the sooner we start reducing these pollutants the sooner we will reliev e the pressures on clim ate and human health.”
Top actions for health and climate benefits
WHO rated more than 20 av ailable and af f ordable measures to mitigate short-liv ed climate pollutants, including v ehicle emissions standards, capturing
landf ill gas, switching f rom f ossil f uels to renewables, reducing f ood waste and improv ing household cooking f uels, to see which hav e the greatest
potential to improv e health, reduce SLCP emissions and prev ent climate change.
Four interv entions rated medium to high in all three categories:
1. Reducing v ehicle emissions by implementing higher emissions and ef f iciency standards could reduce black carbon and other co-pollutants
f rom f ossil f uels, improv e air quality and reduce the disease burden attributable to outdoor air pollution.
2. Policies and inv estments that prioritize dedicated rapid transit such as buses and trains and f oster saf e pedestrian and cy cle networks can
promote multiple benef its, including: saf er activ e travel and reduced health risks f rom air and noise pollution, phy sical inactiv ity, and road
traf f ic injuries.
3. Providing cleaner and more efficient stove and fuel alternatives to the approximately 2.8 billion low-income households
worldwide dependent on primarily wood, dung and other solid fuels for heating and cooking, could reduce air pollution-related
diseases and reduce the health risks and time invested in fuel-gathering.
4. Encouraging high and middle-income populations to increase their consumption of nutritious plant-based f oods could reduce heart disease
and some cancers, and slow methane emissions associated with some animal-sourced f oods.
“The health benef its that may be obtained f rom these strategies are f ar larger than prev iously understood, and they can be enjoy ed immediately and
locally ,” say s Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Env ironmental and Social Determinants of Health. “The env ironment and
health sectors can now prioritize interv entions to meet both of their goals—prev enting climate change and ensuring good health.”