Mexico – Household energy sector strategy for the state of Puebla

On March 4th, 2025 the WRI organized a seminar on the experiences of sustainable cooking in Mexico and the world in order to identify national and international experiences, with different degrees of success, that have focused on promoting sustainable cooking actions, including the integration of new, more efficient technologies. 

On November 29, 2024, WRI Mexico organized a demonstration workshop entitled “Sustainable Cooking Technologies: A strategy to mitigate environmental and health impacts” at Cuetzalan, in Puebla. The public event brought together representatives from the public sector, civil society organizations and sustainability experts to discuss how these technologies can contribute to the well-being of rural communities and Mexico's climate goals.

The workshop aimed to make visible and value the role of women in household cooking tasks, promoting sustainable solutions that reduce the use of firewood, improve health and maintain the cultural traditions of the region. It also explored opportunities to integrate these technologies into Mexico's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), specifically in the reduction of black carbon.

This workshop will allow WRI Mexico, as implementer of this CCAC funded project, to gather valuable inputs to design strategies to improve the adoption of sustainable cooking technologies in rural communities, promoting gender equity, health and sustainability. In addition, it will contribute to generate recommendations for the federal government to strengthen the rural household energy sector.

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This Household energy sector strategy for Puebla, developed within the framework of this project, identifies, compiles, and analyzes different inputs that supported the design of an energy sovereignty strategy aimed at reducing black carbon emissions from traditional firewood-based cooking in rural areas. This document pretends to provide input to a broader strategy of the Government of Mexico to shift the narrative of climate policy, emphasizing the multiple benefits that climate action can generate for vulnerable populations. These populations include children, women, older adults, indigenous communities, and people living in poverty and marginalization in rural areas. In this context, reducing black carbon is also recognized as a priority within Mexico’s Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0, particularly in the domestic energy sector, where significant mitigation opportunities exist with positive impacts on health and social equity.

Activities performed during this project, included identifying and analyzing cultural, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence the adoption of cooking technologies in rural areas. The aim was to identify opportunities and generate recommendations to reduce the environmental and climate impacts associated with traditional wood-burning stoves, as well as to reduce social inequities and the negative health effects caused by exposure to pollutants. The sections of this document therefore include: a brief context on the use of firewood for cooking; the methodology and fieldwork conducted; the results achieved; and a series of conclusions, which ultimately lead to recommendations for improving clean and efficient cooking initiatives in Mexico. A major accomplishment of this project was the development of a comprehensive diagnostic assessment of cooking practices, biomass consumption, health impacts, gender dynamics, and community perceptions. This assessment was based on desk research, 70 in-person interviews, participant observation, and a detailed gender and social analysis conducted in the municipality of Cuetzalan, Puebla. The information collected allowed the documentation of real household conditions, stove performance, wood collection practices, family dynamics linked to cooking, and the barriers that limit the transition to cleaner technologies, all these aspects considered in this strategy.

As conclusions of this project, it has been pointed out that the implementation of efficient cookstoves in rural areas represents a viable alternative as a transitional technology toward more sustainable cooking models. These fuel‑efficient wood stoves have demonstrated benefits in terms of public health, energy efficiency, and the reduction of pollutant emissions, including greenhouse gases and black carbon. However, their potential impact can only be realized if the structural barriers that limit their adoption are overcome, such as lack of infrastructure, high acquisition costs, and limited compatibility with local social and cultural practices. Moreover, sociocultural and gender factors play a decisive role in the appropriation of these technologies. Women, the primary users of traditional stoves, face constant risks to their health and safety, in addition to economic and physical burdens associated with firewood collection. The persistence of traditional practices, low perception of the risks associated with smoke exposure, and the exclusion of women from technical training processes hinder the transition to clean technologies. Likewise, the lack of involvement of the health sector in efficient cooking programs limits the monitoring of health benefits, despite the high incidence of respiratory diseases and deaths attributable to the use of traditional stoves. Finally, the continued use of firewood has significant environmental implications. Although it does not always translate into deforestation, it does contribute to forest degradation and increased vulnerability to fires. From a community perspective, firewood collection in coffee‑growing areas is perceived as part of traditional landscape management, underscoring the need to integrate local knowledge into the design of public policies. Overall, the project’s findings show that the energy transition in rural contexts must be addressed through a comprehensive approach that connects health, gender, culture, the environment, and the economy.

Read the full document (in Spanish)

Within the framework of the project, relationships and social dynamics between the people responsible for cooking activities and those who collect and manage the fuels used for this activity were identified. Some findings are:

• “The rural context of Cuetzalan also plays a predominant role in shaping the relationships among people involved in cooking activities, as the economic environment and energy infrastructure do not support the availability or affordability of more sustainable technologies and fuels. This favors the continued use of fuels such as firewood, which are the easiest to obtain and the most affordable for a population with high levels of poverty—particularly women, who are usually responsible not only for cooking processes but also for the management of natural resources, including firewood collection, as well as the economic resources used for cooking.”
• “It was identified that most families choose to collect firewood on their own land, in coffee plantations, or in nearby forested areas. This task is usually carried out by women, and in general, less than a quarter of a ‘tarea’ is collected on a weekly basis.” (dimensions of a “tarea,” as locally defined, are 0.84 m in height, 3.35 m in length, and 0.40 m in width).
• “When firewood collected by the family is not sufficient due to family or community events, households resort to purchasing firewood. Cases have also been identified in which, due to the scarcity of firewood in traditional collection areas, families choose to buy it, which contributes to increased pressure on forest resources and promotes processes of forest degradation”.
• “According to the perceptions of participants, firewood collection is not only a necessity; it is also a family activity that fosters social interaction and community integration. This family interaction includes the transmission of knowledge across generations on a wide range of topics, from biodiversity and traditions to traditional medicine and even natural resource management.”
• “It is also important to note that in cases of wildfires and forest degradation, these events have generated significant changes in rural livelihoods, particularly among subsistence production units belonging to the sectors with the highest levels of poverty in the municipality. As a collateral effect, the workload for women has increased, as they must undertake longer and more frequent trips to collect firewood.”

These findings indicate that women are the primary focus for communication interventions because they are mainly responsible for both cooking and fuel management. However, it is also essential to engage men—especially heads of household—since they play a key role in decision-making, such as the purchase of firewood. Also, it has been learned that it is highly relevant to carry out communication actions that are adapted to the language used by the population that relies on stoves and traditional cookstoves, so that the messages can trigger transformative changes among the people reached by such communication. The materials developed were designed with the intention of being disseminated on a long-term basis, allowing communities to take ownership of them and to generate not only individual but also community-level changes through increased awareness.

Read the full report “Lecciones por aprender” (in Spanish)

Through research activities and the identification of the most effective messages to be disseminated through various communication channels (including local radio stations)—using language adapted to the local context—the following key communication messages were defined.

• Cooking with firewood or charcoal is a sign of lack of access to basic services and is very harmful to health, as it pollutes the air both inside and outside the home.
• Globally, four out of every ten people cook with firewood or charcoal in their homes. At the national level, this occurs in two out of every ten Mexicans.
• When firewood is burned in traditional cookstoves (three-stone fires), toxic substances harmful to health are released into the air, including gases and fine particles that can affect health, especially among children, women, and older adults.
• Exposure to firewood smoke over a short period of time causes irritation of the eyes and nose, coughing, phlegm, bronchial obstruction, and respiratory infections in children under five years of age.
• Over time, constant exposure to firewood smoke can lead to chronic health problems, such as lung and heart diseases, as well as lung cancer, among others. If a pregnant woman is exposed to firewood smoke, it can have negative effects on both the mother and the baby, causing low birth weight and respiratory problems at an early age.
• In Mexico, it is estimated that indoor air pollution is linked to more than six thousand deaths per year from cardiorespiratory diseases, with the state of Puebla being one of the most affected.
• The use of firewood for cooking and heating homes can contribute to an increase in the Earth’s temperature (climate change), due to forest loss for obtaining firewood and to firewood smoke that traps the sun’s heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.

Awareness-raising videos were developed in collaboration with users of wood-burning stoves in the municipality of Cuetzalan, Puebla. In the videos, participants shared their testimonies about the use of these technologies, including good practices and the health effects associated with the use of traditional cookstoves.