"Fifty countries are meeting in France on Tuesday to discuss the lack of access to clean cooking methods worldwide which causes millions of deaths every year and fuels global warming.
Some 2.3 billion people across 128 countries breathe in harmful smoke when they cook on basic stoves or over open fires, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA)-African Development Bank (ADB) report that sounded the alarm last year.
It said 3.7 million people a year die prematurely from harmful cooking practices, with children and women most at risk.
The IEA said the "unprecedented" Paris gathering aims to be "a moment of changing the direction", its sustainability and technology director Laura Cozzi told journalists.
The problem "touches on gender, it touches on forestry, it touches on climate change, it touches on energy, it touches on health," added Cozzi."
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