Resilient Innovation and the Pursuit of Universal Access to Clean Cooking in Subsistence Environments: A Review

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-606-7_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Household Air Pollution (HAP); Modern Energy Cooking Solutions (MECS); Resilient Innovation; eCooking; Advanced Combustion Cookstoves (ACS); Indoor Air Quality

Abstract

Household Air Pollution (HAP) from solid cooking fuels still poses a critical global health and development challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This review synthesizes evidence from international agency reports and peer-reviewed literature to examine how resilient innovation can enable sustainable clean cooking transitions in subsistence environments. Using a narrative - scoping review approach, the paper evaluates modern energy cooking solutions (MECS), including LPG, electric cooking (eCooking), biofuels and advanced biomass technologies, focussing on health, affordability, emissions and adoption outcomes. Evidence indicates that while national LPG programs such as India’s PMUY - deliver substantial short-term welfare gains, long-term resilience requires diversified, multi-fuel strategies adapted to local infrastructure, cultural practices, and market conditions. Emerging innovations, including bottled biogas systems, advanced combustion cookstoves, and IoT enabled indoor air quality monitoring, offer complementary pathways but show heterogeneous real-world performance. The review concludes that framing clean cooking as a resilience challenge rather than a single-technology intervention provides a more robust pathway toward universal access, economic development, and climate mitigation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - T. Sreevaram
AU  - D. Suneetha
AU  - V. Neeraja
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/05
TI  - Resilient Innovation and the Pursuit of Universal Access to Clean Cooking in Subsistence Environments: A Review
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Resilient Innovations for Subsistence Environment (IC-RISE-2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 65
EP  - 70
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-606-7_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-606-7_9
ID  - Sreevaram2026
ER  -