Supermodel backs push to tackle energy poverty

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has teamed up with charity Practical Action to raise awareness of the impact of energy poverty.  

According to Practical Action, in Sub Saharan Africa, two in every three families live without electricity and around 3bn people cook on open fires inside their homes - filling them with toxic smoke - resulting in the death of close to 2m people a year.

To mark the UN’s Year of Sustainable Energy for All, Bundchen, travelled to Kenya and experienced the realities of energy poverty first hand, taking part in a dawn firewood collection with women in Kisumu, Western Kenya, who still cook on traditional fires that fill homes with toxic smoke.

Practical Action is working to install improved cookstoves and smoke hoods which remove up to 80 per cent of the toxic smoke inside homes (pictured below). Margaret Gardner, director at Practical Action said: “The international community recognises a number of basic rights: the right to water, the right to food, the right to health, the right to adequate housing, the right to earn a living and the right to take part in cultural life. Missing from this list is the right to energy. Yet, everyone needs energy. Energy poverty denies people a basic standard of living, which should be available to all.”