A new journal paper I have co-authored with Ed Brown (Loughborough University) and Nora Groce (University College London), ‘Clean cooking for every ‘body’: including people with disabilities in modern energy cooking services in the global south’ has been published in Energy Research and Social Science. This paper is based on previous work I have done for the Modern Energy Cooking Services programme funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and led by the Centre for Sustainable Transitions: Energy, Environment and Resilience (STEER) at Loughborough University.
Through our paper, we recognise that clean cooking solutions which use cleaner fuels than sources such as firewood are important for tackling climate change and expanding access to energy for all. However, this paper highlights how people with disabilities are particularly left behind in the expansion of access to clean cooking technologies.
We draw on the literature to highlight issues of nutrition, cooking, and poverty that are specific to those with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries, but that there is an opportunity to address these through modern energy cooking services. We discuss the importance of including people with disabilities in clean cooking programmes and the wider implications this has, how clean cooking appliances can be adapted with innovations including ‘talking features’ and safety devices to help people with different impairments to cook.
Engaging people with disabilities as champions of clean cooking, involving organisations of disabled persons and using global resources such as media are key to ensuring that people with disabilities are fully included.
Check out our paper here!