The multimillion-dollar donation is key to driving a Household Program that allows families to acquire ecological stoves. It is a crucial contribution to a system that, as it currently relies on firewood or charcoal, is the source of a severe environmental problem. This becomes even more pressing considering that 70% of the country’s population lives in poverty and lacks the means to access less polluting methods.
“Cooking for my family is my joy, my passion, and the first time I prepared a meal with the ecological stove, it was a complete turning point. My family stopped coughing, and my eyes no longer burned because there was almost no smoke in the air,” recounts María Esther, a mother of three. “Cooking is now easier and safer, and also a true relief for everyone, because before, the smoke was extremely bothersome.”
This testimony about the profound change brought by the incorporation of an improved cooking stove (ICS) into family life has spread rapidly across Kenya’s coastal strip. Already, thousands of households have acquired one thanks to the Green Climate Fund and its line of credit. In Mombasa and other coastal districts such as Taita Taveta, Kilifi, and Kwale—home to around 9 million people—the path toward an energy transition, precarious yet necessary, has begun.
The Green Climate Fund has taken action in Africa to help design a more sustainable future, which, in this part of the world, must start with the daily lives and practices of its people. In the 21st century, across Kenya’s coastal region, food is still cooked over firewood or charcoal. To successfully curb the massive volume of polluting emissions released into the atmosphere and to introduce a more environmentally friendly method of cooking, the Green Climate Fund has allocated a substantial—multimillion-dollar—sum to finance, through credit lines, the purchase of improved cooking stoves (ICS).
A More Ecological, Safer, and Healthier Cooking System
In Kenya, cooking with firewood or charcoal, beyond being harmful due to toxic smoke, is unsafe, polluting, and deepens families’ poverty. Each bundle of firewood or bag of charcoal represents a daily and monthly expense that weighs heavily on already fragile household economies.
In addition, women and girls in the family, typically responsible for collecting firewood, lose precious time that could otherwise be devoted to studying, training to launch a business, or seeking employment.
From an ecological perspective, the situation places additional pressure on a highly vulnerable resource: Africa’s native forest. To meet strong and growing demand, increasingly larger portions of forest must be cleared. This, in turn, contributes to the progressive degradation of biodiversity within these ecosystems, while accelerating soil erosion.
In a world that must act quickly to respond to the environmental crisis, the reality is that the poorest families cannot make this transition alone—they need financial means and adequate support.
Change Begins in Daily Life and at Home
The miracle of accessing a more ecological cooking method in Kenya’s coastal towns—the country’s poorest and most precarious areas—has been made possible through the committed action of the Green Climate Fund. This United Nations program has already yielded significant results in a short time. By the end of 2024, its records showed around 130,000 stoves distributed to families, directly benefiting some 107,000 households.
More broadly, owning an ecological stove represents progress and a leap forward in both quality of life at home and in personal health. At the community level, the positive impact has been evident in the rapid growth of the local economy. Having an ecological stove also provides a new means of livelihood, fostering economic takeoff through ventures such as small-scale food businesses.
In this way, the women of Kenya’s coastal strip—who love cooking and express care through this essential service—now have in their hands a concrete tool to move forward, protect their families’ health, and claim a role in the rising African society as key actors in their households’ economies.
