John Nwachukwu, a resident of Angwadadi, a community located in the suburbs of Abuja, has been a restaurant owner for many years. Since his 16 years of running Cobona Kitchen, however, he has never been told or felt any responsibility towards the environment through his cooking practice.
“Climate change, clean cooking? I have not heard of that before,” Mr Nwachukwu, who cooks with firewood mostly, said when this reporter played up the terms.
However, in 2019 when he was diagnosed with short sightedness, Mr Nwachukwu switched to charcoal.
“When I started using this charcoal, I saw that the charcoal system is better than firewood. Charcoal is even faster” he said.
As would be discovered in this story, many residents of Angwadadi, where Mr Nwachukwu lives, engage in unclean means for their cooking, adding to environmental pollution and setting back the possibility of a clean energy target.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2.6 billion people cook with…
