The National Energy Policy also highlights the negative health impacts, particularly on women, of traditional cooking and the need to more actively involve women in determining future forms of energy sources for cooking. Energy consumption is concentrated in the Gilbert Islands, where 90 per cent of Kiribati’s 112,900 people live, particularly in the capital atoll of Tarawa. Kiribati relies on fossil fuels for 97 per cent of its energy needs, with the rest provided by biomass (Figure 9.1). Fuel imports have almost doubled since 1990, making up close to 20 per cent of Kiribati’s merchandise imports in 2013, which is higher than the world and small states average (Figure 9.2).