Globally, around 2.4 billion people use biomass fuels or cooking, which has serious climate and environmental consequences as well as being potentially damaging to health.

However, there has been a reluctance by people living in Sub-Saharan Africa to switch from traditional cooking fuels to cleaner alternatives.

The research, carried out by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), is aimed at gathering information for stove producers, NGOs and policy makers who want to promote the use of cleaner cooking fuels.

SEI researcher, Fiona Lambe, said: “To date, research regarding the determinants of stove choice at the household level has focused mainly on socio-economic attributes, such as income, age, gender and education.

“While the role of product-specific attributes, such as safety, indoor smoke, usage cost and stove price, have been given less attention.”

SEI will presents the research report at the European Parliament in Brussels, as part of the event ‘Clearing the Smoke: Promotion of Clean Cook Ethanol Fuel Stoves in Developing Countries’ at the EU Sustainable Energy Week.

Alison Brown

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