NAIROBI, KENYA — Brenda Obare cooks for her family using a charcoal burner outside her tin-roofed home in the Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi, having switched from a gas stove as cooking gas has become too expensive and often unavailable in the settlement.

Obare previously lit a blue flame on her gas stove with a quick turn of the knob before sunset. She now relies on charcoal, which remains readily available in Kibera.

Kibera is one of Africa's largest informal settlements. The shift from liquefied petroleum gas to charcoal in households there reflects a broader pattern across Africa and South Asia, where energy disruptions linked to the Iran war are causing more households to revert to charcoal and firewood for cooking.

Governments in Africa and South Asia had promoted cleaner fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas for health and conservation reasons. Rising energy costs are undermining that shift toward cleaner cooking fuels like LPG.

The reversal is visible in settlements like Kibera, where the cost and availability of LPG have made charcoal the practical alternative for households that previously made the transition to gas. Cooking gas has become too expensive and is often unavailable, while charcoal remains within reach for residents. Energy disruptions linked to the Iran war have accelerated the return to traditional fuels across the two regions, reversing progress that governments had worked to achieve by encouraging the adoption of cleaner cooking options for both public health and environmental conservation.