Africa Cannot Just Stop Cooking
- Patricia Nanteza
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
Today at 13:00 in Kampala, Uganda we launched a campaign that should not need to exist. But here we are.
It’s called Just Stop Cooking. A satirical and even absurd title, yes — but behind the humour is a deeply serious injustice that Africans face every single day.
In Africa, to cook a meal often means burning wood or charcoal. This isn’t romantic, or “traditional” — it’s deadly. Nearly 700,000 people die prematurely every year in Africa due to indoor air pollution from burning solid fuels. Most of them are women and children, whose daily cooking puts their lives at risk. Indoor air pollution kills more people than malaria.
There is a solution- LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). A simple cooking gas that burns far more cleanly than charcoal, protects forests, and saves lives. LPG is already widely used in wealthier countries for heating, transport, or backup power — though it is rare for households in Europe or the US to cook with LPG itself.
And now comes the injustice: while African governments seek financing to expand LPG access and save lives, development banks and climate donors refuse. The reason? Because LPG is a fossil fuel.
Meanwhile, Europe is building dozens of massive LNG terminals to import even more natural gas supplied largely by the United States. In fact, much of Europe’s LNG expansion is directly dependent on American fracked gas exports. New pipelines, new terminals, new tankers — locking in fossil fuel dependence for decades to come.
So let’s be clear:
When Americans frack gas and ship it across the Atlantic, that’s called “energy security.”
When Europe builds LNG terminals to import that gas, that’s called “resilience.”
But when Africa asks for a few cylinders of LPG to keep women from dying while cooking, it’s suddenly “fossil fuel expansion” which must be blocked.
That’s what we call carbon colonialism.
If 80% of households on the continent must cook they must cut down trees which is unacceptable given the rate at which deforestation is spreading on the continent or, we must use LPG which is a forbidden fossil fuel. If we follow this logic to its absurd conclusion, then yes — perhaps Africans should simply stop cooking. Two days a week? Three? Or permanently? That’s the dark humour behind Just Stop Cooking.
Of course, we’re not calling for anyone to stop cooking. We are calling for fairness. For pragmatism. For justice.
LPG is not perfect. But right now, it is the best bridge we have to protect both human life and Africa’s forests, while we work toward full electrification in the future. We cannot wait for a utopian grid to magically arrive while millions die breathing smoke.
As someone who has spent years advocating for Africa’s right to make its own decisions — whether on GMOs, biotechnology, or energy — I will not accept this patronising moral purity from countries that have already consumed most of the global carbon budget.
Africa deserves the right to protect its people without waiting for permission from wealthy nations who continue to expand their own fossil infrastructure.
That's why we launch Just Stop Cooking to expose this hypocrisy. Not to beg. Not to plead. But to demand autonomy and justice.
To the World Bank, to development donors, to climate NGOs in Europe and North America:
Stop blocking Africa’s path to clean cooking.
Stop pretending that charcoal is somehow acceptable because it’s “local. ”Stop asking African women to sacrifice their lives while you build more LNG import terminals.We cannot just stop cooking.
But we can — and must — stop the hypocrisy. Fund clean cooking NOW!
We need your help to get this essential message in front of as many as people.
Support our campaign today: www.juststopcooking.org