Total financial commitments for clean cooking in Africa have surpassed $3.1 billion after $900 million in new pledges were announced on 9 July at a high-level virtual meeting, with $740 million already deployed across 22 African countries.
The announcement came at a meeting convened by the co-chairs of the second Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, which had been scheduled to take place in Nairobi but was postponed. Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), confirmed the deployment figure and said further commitments are expected before the next summit, now due later this year.
The pledges build on momentum from the inaugural Paris summit in 2024.
A progress report released alongside the meeting recorded 121 clean cooking policies introduced across more than 30 African countries since that first gathering, covering roughly 80% of the continent’s population without access to clean cooking.
Nearly a billion people across Africa still cook on charcoal, firewood, and other polluting fuels — roughly double the number without electricity — contributing to an estimated 850,000 premature deaths each year.
A new programme for fuel security
Alongside the financial update, the IEA launched the Clean Cooking Security Programme, which will provide policy and market assistance on domestic fuel security. The programme responds directly to a supply shock caused by disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which the IEA says affected 30% of globally traded liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — the primary cooking fuel for more than 3.4 billion people worldwide.
The disruption has sharpened the case for diversified, domestically anchored clean cooking supply chains across African markets, where LPG distribution infrastructure remains uneven.
Alliance takes multilateral form
The meeting also marked the first plenary of the Clean Cooking Alliance in its new form as a multilateral initiative hosted by the IEA. Twelve member countries have joined, with others considering membership. The Alliance is designed to support country-led implementation and translate financial commitments into on-the-ground delivery.
Kenya’s President William Ruto, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright, African Union (AU) Commissioner for Energy and Infrastructure Lerato Mataboge, and Birol all participated in the virtual meeting. Ruto said ambition alone is not enough and must be backed by investment.
The scale of the challenge remains significant. The clean cooking deficit in Africa is larger than the electricity access gap, yet it has historically attracted far less financing. The combination of new multilateral architecture, a growing policy base across more than 30 countries, and a dedicated fuel security programme signals a more structured push to close that gap.
