Energy is a key enabler to socio-economic development in both developed and developing countries. Many communities in developing countries lack access to electricity and rely on biomass in the form of wood. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity in the world. In order to manage the usage of wood and reduce environmental impacts it is worth noting that deployment of improved cooking stoves has been very useful in many developing countries especially Africa and South East Asia. Some of the benefits of improved cooking stoves include the following:
- Improved combustion efficiency
- Reduced air emissions
- Consumption of less firewood
- Improved air quality
- Reduced incidence of respiratory diseases