TotalEnergies set to give clean cooking access to 100m people in Africa, India

·         2.3bn people worldwide lack access to clean cooking solutions

·         93,000 women, children die from firewood-cooking smoke in Nigeria – WHO

Ben Eguzozie

At the Clean Cooking summit organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA), TotalEnergies, French global energy conglomerate, announced its intention to provide some 100 million people in Africa and India access to clean cooking by 2030.

The company will be investing more than $400 million in the development of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking to achieve the target.

Additionally, the company will develop the use of digital pay-as-you-cook technologies that allow customers to pay only as they use the LPG cylinder, rather than having to pay the full value of the cylinder volume up front.

According to the IEA, more than 2.3 billion people worldwide do not have access to clean cooking solutions, and still cook their meals on traditional stoves using wood and charcoal.

Access to cleaner cooking fuels, such as LPG, helps improve people’s health due to better air quality, thereby limiting the risk of respiratory complications and cardiovascular disease. Household air pollution is the second leading cause of premature death among women in sub-Saharan Africa, a study said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in a 2012 report said, smoke from firewood kills approximately 93,000 vulnerable Nigerian women and children every year, making it the third greatest killer of women and children in Nigeria after malaria (which accounts for 225,000 deaths annually) and HIV/AIDS (which kills 192,000 people every year).

Also, access to cleaner cooking reduces gender inequality by facilitating access to education, employment, entrepreneurship and, ultimately, financial independence for women. Clean cooking solutions represent a significant time-saver for people who would otherwise spend as much as 20 hours per week collecting wood for cooking purposes.

Quite important, universal access to clean cooking solutions reduces CO₂ emissions and deforestation, resulting in emission savings of up to 1.5 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent by 2030 (of which 900 million tons are in Africa) — equivalent to the CO₂ emissions produced by the air and maritime industries in 2022 or the deforestation of forests the size of Ireland each year.

Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, praised cleaner cooking initiative by the IEA, which he said, TotalEnergies “embraces to promote access to reliable, affordable and sustainable cooking solutions for as many people as possible, in line with the company’s purpose”.

Pouyanné said by developing access to clean cooking in Africa and India, TotalEnergies “aims to have a positive impact on the environment and on people’s health, while also helping to reduce gender inequalities in these regions”.

“Clean cooking contributes to long-term social, economic and human development in a more sustainable way. The company is already a major player in the distribution of LPG in cylinders, with more than 50 million people in Africa and Asia benefiting already from a reliable and cleaner energy,” he further stated.