Leveraging the health argument as a driver for evidence-based multisectoral action on clean cooking

Worldwide, nearly three billion people rely on traditional solid fuels and technologies for cooking and heating. This has severe implications for health, gender relations, livelihoods, environmental quality and global and local climates. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), household air pollution from cooking with traditional solid fuels contributes to three to four million premature deaths every year – more than malaria and tuberculosis combined. Women and children are disproportionally affected by health impacts, and bear much of the burden of collecting firewood or other traditional fuels.

In this joint lecture hosted by the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) and the Loughborough Centre for Sustainable Transitions: Energy, Environment and Resilience (STEER) as part of the IAS Breathe annual theme of events, IAS Visiting Fellow Heather Adair-Rohani, who leads the work on energy and health at the WHO, will outline the health burden of biomass based cooking practices and highlight some of the policy and programmatic challenges of achieving clean cooking in the past. Solutions for overcoming these challenges will be shared, emphasizing the importance of intersectoral collaboration between the health, clean cooking and sustainable development sectors in order to catalyse modern energy access policy development and implementation referencing.

Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space inside International House.

By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.