Modelling clean cooking use in India: Transition trends and estimates for sustainable development

Achieving SDG 7.1.2 is critical for the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. This has suffered greater setbacks in the global south. The study uses the household energy database and the Indian residential energy survey to review India’s clean cooking energy status and trends. Using a modelling approach, approximate estimates of the primary use of different cooking fuel categories studied were provided up to 2050. The analysis considers the regional differences and cooking fuel categories from 1990 to 2030. This was correlated with the country's policies and interventions relating to cooking fuels. The results show India has made significant progress in increasing the proportion of the population primarily using clean fuels and technologies for cooking in recent years. The latest rate shows that 74.5% of the Indian population primarily uses clean cooking fuels in 2022. A considerable disparity in the primary use of clean cooking energy persists between urban and rural India, with a much larger population residing in rural areas. Model projections under business-as-usual indicate that although the primary use of clean cooking fuels increases steadily, approximately 178.35 million, 73.82 million, and 37.2 million people in rural India will continue to rely primarily on polluting cooking fuels by 2030, 2040, and 2050, respectively. Despite various progress, interventions, and policies by the government, India faces challenges in meeting its cooking energy demand. The study suggested pathways towards achieving the goal in India.