Clean Cooking Matters Zambia

31/03/2026

Policy and Regulatory Framework for Clean Cooking in Zambia – National Forestry Policy of 2025

Join us over the next few weeks as we go through Zambia’s Policy and Regulatory Framework for clean cooking. Our second document in the series is the National Forestry Policy.

You might ask what the National Forestry Policy has to do with Clean Cooking. Well, wood fuel, in the form of charcoal and firewood, accounts for over 70% of Zambia’s energy. The extraction of trees from forests for wood fuel is cited as being among the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Zambia. So in addition to being a major energy source, wood fuel also happens to be a major forest product.

Objective 6 .1 of the National Forestry Policy – “To improve the conservation of, restoration and management of forest resources in order to increase forest cover” speaks directly to our topic and has the following Policy Measure –

“Promote the development and adoption of improved charcoal production and utilisation technologies.”

The specific improved technologies for charcoal utilisation are not mentioned here because as mentioned in the first post in the series, government policies provide guidance on the government’s priorities at a given time. They are high level and broad in nature in order to accommodate all technologies and innovations. The specifics are covered in sector strategies and action plans. It is also good to note that charcoal spans across a number of sectors with the main ones being forestry (charcoal production and transportation as well as trade) and the energy sector (consumption). The policies of these sectors thus complement each other although some duties and provisions may seem to overlap.

Who should promote and/or adopt the improved charcoal utilisation methods being aspired to in the Forestry Policy? Government through the relevant ministries and implementing agencies does this but it requires and encourages the active participation of all stakeholders to be effective. These include research and learning institutions, private sector, NGOs, Donors and communities.

As noted in the first post of the series, the term “Clean Cooking” may not appear in government documents but instead you will find terms like biomass or alternative technologies and in the case of the Forestry Policy the term “improved charcoal utilisation technologies” essentially covers this.

25/03/2026

Policy and Regulatory Framework for Clean Cooking in Zambia – National Energy Policy of 2019

Join me over the next few weeks as we go through Zambia’s Policy and Regulatory Framework for clean cooking. We start the series with the National Energy Policy (NEP).

The NEP is the guiding document when it comes to clean cooking in Zambia with the overall objective - To achieve optimal energy resources utilization to meet Zambia's domestic and non-domestic needs at the lowest total economic, financial, social, environmental and opportunity cost and establish Zambia as a net exporter of energy.

The specific objective regarding clean cooking is - To promote sustainable exploitation of biomass and alternative energy to wood fuel resources in order to increase socio-economic development. To achieve this, the following are the policy measures:

- Promoting efficient and sustainable exploitation of biomass for household utilization;
- Promote the use of alternatives to wood fuel;
- Ensure that the use of biofuels for the energy market is given priority without compromising food security. [This includes ethanol for cooking].

Other objectives in the NEP do not have specific policy measures for clean cooking but are non the less applicable. These are:

Ø Strengthening institutional capacity in the energy sector (Objective 1).
Ø Strengthening regulatory frameworks (Objective 2).
Ø Promoting efficient use of energy resources (Objective 3)
Ø Increasing exploitation of renewable energy (Objective 5).
Ø Increasing access to electricity (Objective 6). [applicable to Electric cooking (e-cooking].
Ø Ensuring adequate, reliable and affordable supply of petroleum products and natural gas (Objective 7) – [This includes Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)]
Ø Promoting private sector participation in the Energy Sector (Objective 8).
Ø Promoting innovation, research and development in the sector (Objective 9).
Ø Mainstreaming gender, climate change, health and safety (Objective 10).

It is useful to note that government policies are high-level guidelines that indicate national priorities and thus direct/guide decision making processes. Policy measures are thus broad in nature to cover as much ground as possible. The specific targets are broken down in the subsector strategies e.g. the Renewable Energy Strategy and Action Plan. As of March 2026, there was no specific strategy for clean cooking in Zambia although there was one under development.

Also note that the term “Clean Cooking” was adopted fairly recently and is not used in the NEP and most of other government documents particularly the older ones. What you will find instead is the term “Biomass” or “Alternative Energy Sources to Charcoal.”

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13/03/2026

Does food cooked on a mbaula taste better than that cooked using other energy sources?

What's your say?

03/03/2026

Clean cooking and rural areas...

My true appreciation of the need for clean cooking in rural areas began in 2018 when, as part of my work with the Ministry of Energy, I visited Chitambo District in Central Province. I had been in the sector for 8 years then and thought I had seen it all through my work with low income households in Lusaka who relied a lot on charcoal for cooking.

In Chitambo, I saw the effects of using firewood upclose. The roofs of the kitchens where the women cooked from were blackened from the soot and tar from using firewood. Normally cooking is done outside but during the rainy season, they moved indoors into these improperly ventilated huts. Quite a number of the women were coughing and they explained it away as being normal for them. Quite a number had red/brownish eyes from being in the room with all the smoke for long periods. And while cooking, small children hang around their mothers, also breathing in the smoke in the rooms. The area still had a lot of forest around so people did not need to go too far to collect firewood but it still took a considerable amount of time for the boys and girls who were tasked to collect firewood for their homes.

I call this time my awakening as it was the first time I put a human face to the issue and this brought about my dedication to the sector. While a lot of efforts have gone to urban areas that use a lot of charcoal, a lot of work remains for rural areas. Electricity access remains low in rural areas. There are a number of alternatives available each with their merits and limitations. Fixed Mud Stoves with chimneys directing smoke away from kitchens are a good alternative but adoption remains low. The cost of constructing biogas digesters remains a barrier to many households. Improved cookstoves that use firewood and/or twigs as a fuel seem to be promising in areas where they have been deployed but again, the price can still be a barrier.

This is a challenge to my fellow clean cooking practitioners, a lot of effort is needed in the rural areas.

20/01/2026

What alternative income generation activities can our friends be encouraged and/or supported to take up?

08/12/2025

Please contact the company directly on the numbers in the post.

20/11/2025

10/11/2025

Did you know that use of energy is a driver of climate change? In Zambia, the main energy drivers include:

1. Use of fossil fuels for transport and industry - diesel, petrol, JetA1 etc.
2. Use of coal in industry & mines. Coal for electricity production also falls in this category but carbon harvesting technologies are available and continuously being improved upon to deal with this.
3. Traditional biomass use i.e. charcoal and firewood which mostly deplete the carbon sinks (forests) and also release ghg gases.

04/11/2025

Institutional Pellet Stoves

Last week, I had the priviledge of attending the launch of Supamoto's Spitfire Stove - a semi industrial stove that can hold pots of up to 50 litres.

The stoves are being piloted in a few institutions and are not yet commercially available. But once they are, I would like to see them in market restaurants as these are often overlooked. A typical council market in Lusaka will have no less than 20 restaurants all cooking using charcoal. This stove, using biomass pellets made of waste biomass is an excellent substitute for the current energy.

For those interested in more information about the instutitional and domestic pellet stoves, please engage Supamoto directly.

21/10/2025

Tips for the Safe Use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

✅ Ensure proper ventilation -Always use LPG in a well-ventilated area to prevent gas buildup.

✅ Never leave flames unattended -Turn off the stove or any gas appliance when not in use.

✅ Keep flames away from cylinders -Store LPG cylinders away from matchsticks, lighters, and other ignition sources.

Let’s use LPG responsibly for a cleaner, safer home.

16/10/2025

Get yourself one of these Improved Cookstoves if you use charcoal for cooking. Those who use them consistently say they moved from using as much as 90kg to 50kg bags of charcoal per month! Thats a huge saving if you ask me. If you can pair the stove with briquettes and do away with charcoal altogether, even better.

Prices range from K100 - K150 depending on size and where you find them.

10/10/2025

We have changed our name from Charcoal Matters to Clean Cooking Matters Zambia to widen our scope.

If you have any clean cooking product that you would like us to review and share on our page, please inbox us.