Larissa Lockwood, Director of Policy & Campaigns at Global Action Plan: “Homes with gas stoves can have nitrogen dioxide levels up to 400% higher than those without – this is the same type of toxic air pollution that comes from car exhausts and is linked to a range of health conditions including lung and heart disease. Transitioning from gas to electric cooking across the UK is a win-win: it will benefit public health through improving indoor air quality, as well as reducing household emissions and energy use. Today we are launching a robust policy roadmap that demonstrates how the UK can transition from gas to electric cooking by 2035, in line with Government home decarbonisation commitments and Climate Change Committee recommendations. We urge policymakers to ensure that UK households are not left behind in the transition to cleaner, safer, and more efficient cooking methods.”

Nicole Kearney, CLASP Director, Europe said: “As governments across Europe move to decarbonise heating, gas cooking remains a blind spot, a neglected source of indoor air pollution that keeps homes locked into using fossil fuels. The solution to bridge these gaps and make cleaner, healthier, and more efficient electric cooking accessible to everyone is available and ready for implementation. The UK Government should seize this opportunity and set a powerful precedent by championing an equitable transition.”

Manchester MP Afzal Khan, host of the parliamentary event, said: “Air pollution from gas cooking is linked to a range of health problems including asthma, lung and heart disease. I’m pleased to see Manchester leading locally on the transition from gas to electric cooking in social housing and demonstrating the value of electric cooking as a solution to improve air quality, boost public health, cut emissions and reduce household energy bills in the long run. We need to see action on a national scale to ensure that cooking isn’t left out of home decarbonisation efforts. Global Action Plan’s new report provides a comprehensive pathway to transition to electric cooking across the UK, and I urge the Government to review the recommendations set out within it.”

Quarterly polling by Opinium for Global Action Plan of 2,000 British adults shows that public awareness of gas cooking pollution and concern over its health, safety and environmental impacts is relatively low but has been steadily rising for years.

Some 2% of UK carbon dioxide emissions come from cooking. Phasing-out gas hobs would cut the equivalent of all of Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Sheffield’s greenhouse gas emissions combined, CLASP calculates. The government had planned to phase-out gas boilers by 2035, but has so far overlooked the need to transition away from fossil fuel cooking appliances.

Ends

Notes

[1] Burning gas in the kitchen produces levels of indoor air pollution that exceed legal outdoor limits. The World Health Organization daily limit value for nitrogen dioxide exposure was broken in about half (55%) of British homes using gas hobs and/or gas ovens measured under normal living conditions by a Dutch scientific institute. Pollution spikes lasted several hours and were more intense the longer the cooking time. No breaches in homes using electric appliances were recorded. The same institute estimated that 557,326 British children report asthma symptoms. Spanish scientists built on the Dutch research to estimate the number of premature deaths in the UK from gas cookers.

[2] Public awareness of the risks has been growing steadily and gas cooker sales are slowly declining. But they still make up around 40% of sales and gas hobs are installed in around half of all UK homes. Government polling in 2023 found that two thirds of those asked intend to replace their gas hobs. The Government recognises air pollution as the biggest environmental health risk in the UK. Cookers and heaters are the main sources of air pollution inside homes that use gas. Despite this, there is currently no legislation or policy framework in place to warn UK consumers about the risks or encourage a shift to cleaner alternatives. Unless that changes, GAP estimates that well over 1.5 million new gas hobs will be installed in this parliamentary term, based on existing sales data. Gas cookers tend to be used for around 19 years, experts say, prolonging exposure to indoor air pollution.

[3] Residents in ten Southway Housing Trust properties agreed to have their gas ovens and hobs replaced with induction hobs and electric ovens in early 2025. Some of the gas cookers had been installed decades earlier. Interviews were conducted with all ten households one week before the installation and with seven that remained in the pilot one week after the retrofit. Of these, five said the transition was very easy and one said it was easy. Before the switch, only one household thought induction was easy to use. The project was supported by Beko, B&Q and Electrolux.

Contacts

• Global Action Plan press office press@globalactionplan.org.uk
• CLASP Director, Europe Nicole Kearney (EN) +44 75 4486 5924
• CLASP Senior Communications Associate Païline Caroni (EN, FR) +32 473 127 674
• CLASP Communications Consultant Jack Hunter: jack@fthe.fr +33 7 54 54 35 48

Global Action Plan mobilises people and organisations to take action on the systems that harm us and our planet. We are an environmental charity focused on issues where the connection between the health of people and our planet is most tangible. Our current focus issues are air pollution, big tech, and the education system.

CLASP is the leading global authority on efficient appliances’ role in fighting climate change and improving people’s lives. An international NGO with 25 years of expertise and offices on four continents, CLASP collaborates with policymakers, industry leaders, and other experts to create a more sustainable future for people and the planet. CLASP and our partners are dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing, interconnected crises: the climate emergency, poverty, inequality, and access to energy.