What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

Cooking on firewood and coal increases air pollution and ill health. Some of the dangers include stunted growth in children and undernutrition in children and adults. Babies who've been exposed to charcoal and firewood smoke while in the womb can have reduced birth weight.

In Ghana, it's mostly women who have the task of preparing household meals. Babies are often carried on women's backs while they cook, and children play close to charcoal or wood fires. This exposes women and children to the indoor air pollution resulting from burning biomass fuel.

We are economists who investigated whether environmental consciousness had an influence on Ghanaian people's choice of cooking fuel. We surveyed 1,200 people from six regions in Ghana—the Greater Accra, Eastern, Bono, Bono East, Northern, and Savannah regions.

Our research found that households that were aware of climate change and other global environmental issues were more likely to make cleaner cooking fuel choices.

Awareness of environmental issues has a positive impact on clean cooking fuel use and therefore reduces energy poverty. Energy poverty has been described as lack of access to modern energy sources which are cleaner and less polluting, like liquefied petroleum gas and electricity.

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