Bid To End Deadly Cooking Methods Which Stoke Global Warming

Fifty countries are meeting in France on Tuesday to discuss the lack of access to clean cooking methods worldwide which causes millions of deaths every year and fuels global warming

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th May, 2024) Fifty countries are meeting in France on Tuesday to discuss the lack of access to clean cooking methods worldwide which causes millions of deaths every year and fuels global warming.

Some 2.3 billion people across 128 countries breathe in harmful smoke when they cook on basic stoves or over open fires, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA)-African Development Bank (ADB) report that sounded the alarm last year.

It said 3.7 million people a year die prematurely from harmful cooking practices, with children and women most at risk.

The IEA said the "unprecedented" Paris gathering aims to be "a moment of changing the direction", its sustainability and technology director Laura Cozzi told journalists.

The problem "touches on gender, it touches on forestry, it touches on climate change, it touches on energy, it touches on health," added Cozzi.

A third of the world cooks with fuels which produce harmful fumes when burned, including wood, charcoal, coal, animal dung and agricultural waste.

They pollute indoor and outdoor air with fine particles that penetrate the lungs and cause multiple respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including cancer and strokes.

These cooking practices are the third highest cause of premature deaths in the world and the second highest in Africa. In young children, they are a major cause of pneumonia, experts say.

They also prevent women and children from accessing education or earning a wage, as they spend hours looking for fuel.

The meeting at UNESCO's headquarters will primarily focus on Africa and aims to garner financial backing for a major push on the problem.