How cooking gas will change Africa

How cooking gas will change Africa

It depresses me to note that a tree must fall in Africa for someone to cook a meal.

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If there was one lesson Africa can learn from the way humankind has reacted to COVID19, it is how fast we must change our behaviors to survive when our environment changes.

We need such drastic change in how we cook. It depresses me to note that ,presently, a tree must fall in Africa for someone to cook a meal. And that need not be the case. We have recently joined the push to increase usage of clean cooking energy.

According to the recent United in Science report, humanity is already seriously threatened by ongoing systemic ecological changes. UNEP says the world is presently losing 10 million hectares of forest cover every year! Forests play important role in reduction of carbon dioxide from our environment, and without trees, we cannot win against climate change. Deforestation is therefore the single most potent threat to our world today. 

 

Demand for heating and cooking energy continue to exacerbate human dependence on natural resources such as trees for charcoal and firewood. It makes me sad indeed that a warm meal in 90% of Africa equals a fallen tree. There are sets of sustainable practices in use of wood fuels targeting a balance between care for environment and the necessary tapping of forest resources by man. Bodies such as FAO have recommended these. 

 

Sustainable Development Goal number 7 (SDG7) proposes adoption of clean energy sources such as solar, electricity and LPG in a bid to make life better for man, improve quality of air in our planet and safeguard the climate. The UN and individual nations are keeping a watch on forest canopies. The greener a country is, the better for all. Thus, forest cover in Japan is at 67%, most of South American countries average 49%. Trees also cover 43% of Europe and 41% of North America. Africa is struggling because of how we cook. Severe deforestation in Kenya and Uganda has reduced tree cover to a worrying 6% and 8% of landmass respectively. There is evidence that increasing use of cooking gas will relieve pressure on forests in these two countries. Combined with afforestation and forest protection laws, it can sustainably increase forest cover, according to some models.

In India this has been successful. Numerous programs including price subsidies, public awareness campaigns, and improved delivery mechanisms implemented by government have transformed the country into the world’s largest domestic LPG market today. 97.5% of its 1.35 billion people use LPG for cooking and heating. India is reaping environmental benefit from a regeneration of forests and greening has increased to an impressive 25%, according to their State of Forest Report, 2019.  While an increase in industrial emissions has contributed to the call for urgent de-carbonization agenda, gains from re-greening attributed to LPG usage are a big win for the environment.

Similar strategies have been implemented successfully by Indonesia. Near home, Cameroon is gradually on course with a nationwide scale-up of LPG usage. State backed LPG master plans have the biggest potential to help increase African countries’ contributions to the global fight-back against climate change. 

A banner of Future Gaz brand who are engaged in supply and distribution of LPG gas in Africa. Widespread availability is helping increase  uptake of LPG

For Kenya and Uganda, LPG use remains below 6Kg per person per year. We see a need for public private partnership to enable widespread acceptance of cooking gas through affordability programs which can target women, self-help organizations, bike riders and organized youth groups. 

To further encourage change in how Africa cooks, the UN on its part has created a global LPG (public-private) partnership to address the ecosystem of policy and investment requirements necessary to create a reliable and safe LPG supply chain in developing countries. Unfortunately, in the short to medium term, this UN initiative will only support a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

The UN goal is to get one billion more people cooking cleanly with LPG energy by 2030. Supporting this cause can contribute to national efforts by ministries and other stakeholders in building momentum for realization of SDG7 regionally. 

With Africa’s population projected to reach 2.4 billion by 2050, setting up early systems to meet future demand for cooking energy and matching this with sustainable conservation practices will help change how Africa cooks.