Cleaner kitchens, healthier lives: Ghana’s cookstove revolution gains ground

Ghana is stepping up efforts to move households away from firewood and charcoal, which are still used in 78 percent of homes and contribute to deforestation, indoor air pollution and carbon emissions. The government is promoting cleaner cookstoves as a safer, more efficient alternative.

The Clean Cookstove Initiative is focused on cutting wood fuel demand and reducing the health risks linked to smoke inhalation – particularly among women and children. It also aims to help curb climate change and protect forests.

The programme is targeting smallholder farmers and rural households in five regions: Western, Central, Ashanti, Eastern and Upper West. There are plans to extend it to more parts of the country.

The stoves are designed to use around 60 percent less wood than traditional models. They are being developed and distributed in partnership with Envirofit International, a US-based clean energy company.

The project is one of six climate mitigation schemes in Ghana backed by the KliK Foundation, a Swiss organisation that has pledged about $850 million in funding.

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Community impact

So far, more than 180,000 families have taken part in the programme. Many have reported saving money on fuel and noticing fewer health problems linked to smoke.

Aminatu Hakim, a mother of six from Pullima near Tumu, in the Upper West Region, says the savings she has made from using the new stove have allowed her to reinvest in her small business. 

"I've invested the savings in my onion business," she told RFI. "The proceeds are now supporting my family's daily needs."

She described the clean cookstove as fast, efficient and significantly less reliant on charcoal than traditional cooking methods.

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Dr Daniel Tutu Benefoh, head of Ghana's Carbon Market Office, said the cleaner cookstoves would ease pressure on household budgets and improve public health. “The technology reduces smoke and toxic emissions in individual households by as much as 80 percent,” he said.

The government plans to distribute another 500,000 clean cookstoves over the next three years, with a continued focus on rural and underserved areas.

Across Africa, around four in five people still cook with polluting fuels such as firewood, charcoal and kerosene – often over open flames in poorly ventilated spaces.

The World Bank estimates that this leads to around 600,000 premature deaths each year, making dirty cooking a bigger killer on the continent than malaria.