Climate and Health Implications of Adopting Modern Household Cooking Fuels on a Global Scale
EMILY FLOESS, Katherine Landesman, Annelise Gill-Wiehl, Rob Bailis, Elisa Puzzolo, Dan Pope, Andrew Grieshop,
North Carolina State University Abstract Number: 526
Working Group: Combustion
Abstract2.8 billion people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) cook and heat using solid fuels, resulting in 2.6 million deaths annually from illnesses related to poor household air quality driven by particulate matter (PM). Combustion of solid fuels also emits short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) including black carbon (BC), aerosol precursors and greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate warming. Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) and electricity are cleaner alternatives to traditional cooking fuels. We compare the emissions and climate impacts of residential cooking fuel adoption based on business as usual (BAU) and four transition scenarios of modern fuel use projected to 2040 for 77 countries with more than 1 million people cooking with solid fuels. We account for use-phase and upstream emissions and calculate climate impacts/benefits using a reduced form global climate model to calculate temperature differences associated with different scenarios, including a full transition (FT) to LPG and electricity. A FT to LPG and electricity results in significant health benefits with a 6.39 Mt (99%) reduction of PM2.5 by 2040. The reduction in climate forcers by 2040 results in a 6 milli C global temperature reduction compared to the projected overall 1.5 °C increase. Shifting from biomass-heavy to a fossil fuel-heavy cooking scenario results in a large decrease of SLCFs, with a .99 MT (99%) decrease of BC and 5.87 MT (82%) reduction in CH4, and a more moderate decrease in CO2 emissions (reduction of 122 MT, 13%) due to the relatively high CO2 upstream emissions. The biggest reduction in pollutants in a FT is for Subsaharan Africa, due to the high projections of PM2.5 and BC from charcoal use in the BAU scenario. These results help quantify the impacts of rapid scaling LPG and electricity for cooking needs in developing countries.