The majority of households in sub-Saharan Africa – some 700
million people – rely on traditional biomass for cooking, and
while in other regions, biomass use is decreasing, in Africa
it continues to rise. If current trends continue, almost 900
million people in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to cook with
traditional biomass in 2020. Efforts to bring modern energy
access to all – electricity and clean fuels – are far outpaced by
population growth.
Traditional biomass use has multiple negative impacts,
most notably on health: 600,000 lives are lost each year
in sub-Saharan Africa due to exposure to biomass smoke.
The economic costs of high reliance of biomass for cooking
are also substantial, about US$36.9 billion per year, or
2.8% of GDP, including US$29.6 billion from productive
time lost gathering fuel and cooking. The impacts are
particularly severe for women and girls, who are typically
responsible for these chores.