Energy summit seeks to curb cooking habits that kill millions every year

Harmful cooking practices result in the deaths of 3.7 million people every year with children and women most at risk.

An energy summit that seeks to reduce millions of premature deaths around the world, most notably in Africa, is set to open in Paris and aims to raise billons of dollars to fund expanded access to clean cooking methods.

Representatives from 50 countries will meet in the French capital on Tuesday to discuss how to help billions of people improve kitchen habits, which can produce deadly pollutants and fuel global warming.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which is spearheading the summit, 2.3 billion people across 128 countries breathe in harmful smoke when they cook on basic stoves or over open fires.

In a recent report conducted with the African Development Bank (ADB), the IEA said those cooking practices result in the deaths every year of 3.7 million people, and children and women are most at risk.

The problem “touches on gender, it touches on forestry, it touches on climate change, it touches on energy, it touches on health”, the IEA’s sustainability and technology director Laura Cozzi told journalists.