The Nepal Weekly 
February 7, 2023
The Country Action Plan for clean cooking solutions, prepared by Clean Cooking Alliance Nepal was launched on February 2 in Kathmandu amidst a function. Executive Director of Alternative Energy Promotion Centre Dr. Mashusudhan Adhaakri spoke on the occasion as chief guest. Likewise Narayan Gyawali, Jan Erik Studsrød, Karuna Bajracharya, Badri Baral and Subarna Kapali also highlighted on the need and usefulness of the CAP for Nepal to formulate effective policies, implementation strategies, support market system and access of technology to the users.
The action plan provides a market-based roadmap to accelerate clean cooking in Nepal.
The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) was known as Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. This institution is a non-profit organization operating with the support of the United Nation’s Foundation to promote clean cooking technologies in lower and middle-income countries. According to the World Health Organisation, 4.3 million people a year die from health problems attributable to household air pollution from the use of polluting open fires and inefficient fuels for cooking.
CCA recognizes Nepal’s commitment to clean cooking as an important opportunity. The development of a clearly defined and evidence-based Country Action Plan will prioritize strategic activities essential to scaling up the adoption of clean cooking.
The Country Action Plan is taken as an instrument to inform by key results and insights from the Health Demonstration Project, CCA-commissioned foundational research conducted in 2020-21, and various research activities by partner organizations in Nepal. The Country Action Plan is to provide the Government of Nepal (GoN) with a clear direction regarding specific activities, associated targets, and timeframes. The plan provides a holistic guide on steps forward for the next five years to strengthen the supply of clean cooking, expand demand generating efforts, and support the GoN in executing a large-scale clean cooking effort in Nepal. Hence, the plan will highlights the strengths of stakeholders and support work across sectoral boundaries to push for an integrated approach.
It is worth to mention that more than 60% of households in Nepal rely on fuelwood and traditional or chimney mud stoves to satisfy daily cooking needs. Emissions from these sources have led to high levels of indoor and outdoor air pollution, making household air pollution the third leading cause of early mortality and years of lost life in Nepal.To address this problem, the government of Nepal aims to achieve universal access to electricity and electricity-based cooking by 2030. At the government’s request, CCA is leading the development of a Country Action Plan for Transforming the Cookstoves and Fuels Market in Nepal.
CCA recognizes Nepal’s commitment to clean cooking as an important opportunity. The development of a clearly defined and evidence-based Country Action Plan can prioritize strategic activities essential to scaling up the adoption of clean cooking.
In 2021, in close collaboration with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), CCA launched the development of the Country Action Plan (CAP) for Transforming the Cookstoves and Fuels Market in Nepal. The CAP provides the GoN with a clear, strategic, and evidence-based roadmap with an actionable list of prioritized interventions to support Nepal’s energy access goals, especially those related to the promotion of electric cooking. These prioritized interventions focus on electricity, biomass or are fuel agnostic (i.e., applicable to electricity, biomass, and other clean cooking fuel types).
In particular, the CAP: CCA has worked extensively with the AEPC and subsequently with the National Planning Commission (NPC)2 to ensure that the CAP is (1) aligned with the GoN’s goal and activities; (2) integrated into the national energy agenda; and (3) tailored to Nepal’s context. Moreover, CCA presented the CAP draft to key stakeholders including provincial and local governments, to gain feedback and buy-in. CCA and AEPC developed the CAP based on a rigorous methodology, consultations with partners, key insights from CCA-commissioned foundational research, and various activities by partner organizations in Nepal. The approach toward developing the CAP was outcome-oriented, articulating essential, feasible, and desirable actions to accelerate Nepal’s large-scale transition to cleaner cooking solutions.
