A staggering 64% of Ugandans rely on firewood, while another 28% depend on charcoal for cooking, according to new research by the National Renewable Energy Platform (NREP).
These figures underscore Uganda’s overwhelming dependence on traditional biomass fuels, a trend with serious health, environmental, and economic consequences.
Maria Kizza from NREP shared the findings during an online media training session on clean energy communication.
She stressed that this reliance on firewood and charcoal is a major contributor to household air pollution, which is responsible for an estimated 16,000 premature deaths among children in Uganda each year.
Despite the health risks, only 6% of the population uses clean and modern cooking technologies such as electric stoves, biogas systems, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Electricity use for cooking stands at just 1.1%, while LPG use is only 2.6%.
Kizza urged communicators, media professionals, and community leaders to amplify these facts in order to raise public awareness and encourage policy shifts. “We need to drive conversations that help Uganda move toward clean cooking,” she said.
The Ugandan government has set an ambitious goal: by 2030, at least 50% of the population should be using clean cooking technologies.
By Ben Musanje
13th June 2025
