China is ahead of most low- and middle-income countries in its energy transition: hundreds of millions of rural homes started using clean fuels such as electricity and gas in recent decades. Despite this, many Chinese homes continue using their traditional coal and wood-burning stoves — a trend that is common in many countries.
Traditional stoves linked to premature deaths and climate change
Air pollution from traditional stoves contributed to approximately 2.8 million premature deaths in 2017 and is a major contributor to regional climate change. Efforts made by governments, NGOs, and researchers to incentivize households to switch entirely to clean fuel stoves and give up their traditional stoves — even in highly controlled randomized trials — have largely failed.
