Mitigating air pollution from household energy to improve women and children's health (webinar recording)

Household air pollution disproportionately impacts women and children’s health, and is a main cause of noncommunicable disease such as, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and heart disease in low- and middle-income countries. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to household air pollution almost doubles the risk for childhood pneumonia and is responsible for 45% of all pneumonia deaths in children less than 5 years old. At the same time, home cooking, home heating and kerosene lamps account for more than 50% of global black carbon emissions (a key component of PM2.5) from anthropogenic sources which increases the rate of near-term climate change.

As part of the Every Woman Every Child UNGA75 Virtual Event Hub, on 23 September, 2020 the CCAC hosted a webinar with Helena Molin Valdes, Head, Climate and Clean Air Coalition Secretariat moderated by Tara Ramanathan, Director of Clean Energy, Nexleaf Analytics with invited speakers: Heather Adair-Rohani, Team Leader on Energy and Health, World Health Organization, Smita Rakesh, Portfolio Director, Clean Energy and Climate Action at Social Alpha, Madhusudan Adhikari, Executive Director, Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), Nepal. Heather Adair-Rohani outlined the health impacts of household air pollution on women and children's health; Smita Rakesh provided an overview of the opportunities for electric and renewable cooking from India’s policy and innovation ecosystem perspective; and Madhusudan Adhikari shared insights into Nepal’s national action to achieve electric cooking for all. The moderated discussion focused on the importance of investing in clean household energy to achieve SDG 7 and scale up climate change mitigation, air quality and public health.  

Watch the recording