Controlling PM2.5 air pollution is a first environmental health priority. Nearly 160,000 people died from PM2.5 ambient and household air pollution in Bangladesh in 2019, equivalent to 18 percent of all deaths, with the cost of PM2.5 reaching over 8 percent of GDP[1]. PM2.5 household air pollution from the use of solid fuels for cooking caused 69,000 deaths. Solid fuels for cooking were also responsible for 15 percent of ambient PM2.5 and thus causing 13,500 (or nearly 15 percent) of the premature deaths from ambient PM2.5.
A first target for ambient air quality management (AQM) in Bangladesh is to reach the Bangladeshi air quality standard of 35µg/m3 of annual average PM2.5 concentrations. In terms of clean cooking, the recently approved National Air Quality Management Plan aims to reach 15 million new households with improved clean cooking solutions, with at least 65 percent of them switching to LPG or electricity, by 2030.
In an initial cost-effectiveness analysis, the World Bank identified household adoption of clean cooking solutions as the largest cost-effective measure for improving air quality in Bangladesh, both nationally and in the GDA. Additionally, a cost-benefit analysis indicates that the value of health improvements from the set of identified control measures in household emissions by far exceeds the cost of the measures (World Bank 2023).
As a follow up to the 2023 Bangladesh Country Environmental Analysis (CEA), the World Bank is supporting the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to identify potential interventions to reduce air emissions from residential cooking by transitioning from solid fuels to clean cooking, such as cooking with LPG and electricity.