Inefficient cooking systems a challenge for sustainable development: a case of rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa

The use of low efficient cookstoves has several severe negative impacts. Burning solid fuels kills about 4 million people every year, a number which is higher than the combined impact of HIV-AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Moreover, most of the people affected are located in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries, where over 80% of the population still relies on biomass as their primary source of energy, being the electricity access only 43%. Low-efficiency cooking systems are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions since solid fuel cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 1.2 and 6% of global CO2 and black carbon emissions, respectively. Furthermore, widespread biomass collection by an increasing population in Sub-Saharan Africa is unsustainable, contributing to deforestation. Therefore, the impact of using traditional cooking systems is a challenge for the achievement of sustainable development targets in Sub-Saharan Africa and as a whole globally. There are several cooking technologies used in those rural locations, but there are no clear frameworks or polices to support sustainable cooking options, as well as a guide for users. This paper assesses several cooking technologies with its associated fuels and evaluated each technology in terms of energy consumption, CO2 emissions, health impacts and costs. It was concluded that compared with traditional wood fuel cookstoves, electric cookstoves can reduce the energy consumption by 95.7%, CO2 emissions by 100% (assuming renewable carbon-free electricity) and the life cycle cost by 94%, also avoiding over 180 mg/m3 PM2.5 concentrations per/household per year. Also, this paper indicates that a strong and collective effort is necessary from key stakeholders to switch from traditional and unsustainable cooking technologies and fuels to cleaner and sustainable cooking systems.