People in the poorest parts of the world tend to consume very few processed foods and lots of staple foods, such as dried beans in East Africa, which cannot be eaten raw.īecause they must cook most of their meals to eat, people in low-income countries typically require more energy to prepare a meal and face a difficult choice between paying for food or fuel when LPG becomes more expensive. Cooking with wood and charcoal is also a problem for the climate, as it emits potent greenhouse gases like black carbon.īut the consequences of high cooking fuel prices don’t end there. It is estimated that this causes four million premature deaths each year, out of the more than three billion people exposed. The task can take up to several hours a week and it prevents many from attending school or work.īritishReporter: How to reduce health risks from a gas stoveīurning wood and charcoal for cooking also exposes people to dangerous levels of indoor air pollution in kitchens. Women and girls tend to suffer the most when LPG becomes unattainable, as they are usually responsible for gathering firewood. This has also been documented in Rwanda, Brazil, Vietnam and Kenya.ĬOVID-19 lockdowns at the start of 2020 had already pushed many poorer households around the world into using wood or charcoal due to fuel shortages and a loss of income as businesses were closed and people were urged to stay home. In India, rising LPG prices coupled with the scaling back of a government programme to subsidise cooking gas are forcing people to use firewood. Sudden price changes in LPG typically see households revert to cooking with more polluting alternatives, such as wood and charcoal, which can be gathered for free or bought in small amounts.Ī Nigerian news article published in December 2021 described a woman who started cooking with gas two years ago but has since returned to using charcoal as LPG prices have soared. ![]() The price of LPG has also increased sharply in recent months, which has led to fewer people using it for cooking. ![]() This is a byproduct of fossil gas extraction that is compressed into cylinders for distribution. In low and middle-income countries, over 2.5 billion people cook with liquefied petroleum gas (often abbreviated to LPG). In Germany, increased heating and petrol costs have even forced some food banks to suspend their services. In the UK, food bank users declined potatoes as they couldn’t afford to boil them. One consequence of the meteoric rise in the price of fossil gas has been that cooking meals is now much more expensive.
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