SPECIAL: Bad Idea #15 "Just Stop Cooking" with Patricia Nanteza

SPECIAL: This episode dives into our new campaign, JUST STOP COOKING with WePlanet Africa lead, Patricia Nanteza.

🔍 Episode Summary:

What happens when climate policies from the Global North collide with the lived reality of energy poverty in Africa?

Mark Lynas is joined by Patricia Nanteza, WePlanet’s Africa Lead, to expose one of the most dangerous and overlooked injustices in climate policy today: the effective ban on clean cooking solutions in sub-Saharan Africa. The message being sent to millions of Africans is clear — just stop cooking.

Together they unpack the story behind WePlanet’s new campaign and report, Just Stop Cooking, which reveals how blanket bans on fossil fuel finance, pushed by Global North governments and institutions like the World Bank, are blocking support for LPG. This fuel is one of the only practical clean cooking options available to millions of people right now.

The consequences are devastating. Forests are being destroyed, indoor air pollution is killing women and children, and communities are being left with no safe alternatives. All of this is enforced through a climate double standard, backed by Western green NGOs that claim to speak for Africa without ever listening to it.

If you believe climate justice means justice for everyone, this episode will challenge what you think you know — and show you why real solutions must come from the ground up.

🧠 Topics Discussed:

• 🔥 Why 80% of Africans still rely on wood and charcoal to cook

• 🌲 The link between deforestation and cooking fuels

• 🫁 Indoor air pollution: the silent killer of 700,000 africans each year

• 💀 Carbon monoxide tragedies caused by indoor cooking

• 🔒 How World Bank fossil fuel bans block LPG rollout

• 🌍 Western NGOs pushing unrealistic energy leapfrogging narratives

• 🚫 The hypocrisy of Europe expanding LNG while blocking LPG for Africa

• 📊 The economics of charcoal: an illegal, lucrative, and deforestation-fueled market

• 🧪 Why LPG is the only scalable transitional fuel today

• • 🧭 The roadmap to full electrification — but not overnight
  • 🤬 The anger and injustice behind Western climate finance decisions

  
  

  👩‍🏫 Guest Bio:

  Patricia Nanteza is the Africa Lead for WePlanet, based in Uganda. A passionate science communicator, she has spent years advocating for pragmatic, locally appropriate energy and technology policies that serve Africa’s people — not foreign ideology. She previously led biotechnology campaigns across the continent and continues to champion pro-science voices in Africa’s development debates.

  
  📚 Recommended Reading & Resources:

  • Just Stop Cooking – WePlanet Report
    

  • WHO Report: Household Air Pollution
    

  • IEA Clean Cooking Outlook
    

  • African Development Bank: Mission 300 Program

  
  

  💬 Quote Highlights:

  “You tell us: don’t use charcoal, don’t use LPG, and electricity isn’t available. So you’re basically telling Africans: just stop cooking.” — Patricia Nanteza

  “If you want to help us protect our forests, give us viable alternatives. Right now, that alternative is LPG.” — Patricia Nanteza

  “Western NGOs campaign for zero fossil fuel investment in Africa — while their own countries build new LNG terminals.” — Mark Lynas

  “We didn’t cause climate change. But now we’re told to sacrifice our basic right to cook, in the name of solving it.” — Patricia Nanteza

  
  🌐 About WePlanet:

  WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement championing evidence-based solutions for climate, development, and prosperity. We fight bad ideas with better ones. Learn more at weplanet.org.

  
  

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