Clean cooking

Today, over 2.1 billion people still lack access to low-carbon, efficient, convenient, safe, reliable, and affordable cooking systems.  

In some African regions, women and girls spend up to 20 hours a week collecting firewood to cook food for their families, limiting their opportunities for education and income generation, while exposing them to the risk of injury and violence. 

Furthermore, each year, cooking with unsustainable, polluting fuels costs the world trillions in damage to the environment and local economies, negatively impacting food production and food security.  

Clean cooking systems – efficient stoves powered by solar, biogas or other clean-burning energy sources – offer a practical shift in how food is prepared, especially in regions where wood and charcoal remain the norm. Clean cooking solutions reduce health risks from indoor air pollution, ease pressure on natural resources, reduce time burdens, and expand income opportunities, while strengthening food and nutrition security.  

FAO works to accelerate access to clean cooking solutions for all, by promoting fuels and technologies tailored to local needs—whether in rural areas, cities, or humanitarian settings. This includes supporting the installation of solar or biogas systems, providing clean and more efficient cookstoves, piloting alternative sustainable fuels and technologies, and building local capacity for stove production, use and maintenance, as well as supporting policy decision making.  

Global food security cannot be achieved without reimagining a food system where clean cooking plays a central role in safeguarding climate and nature, improving nutrition, driving gender equality, and supporting livelihoods.