NAIROBI, KENYA – Global and continental leaders have announced an additional $900 million in fresh funding commitments to expand access to low-emission clean cooking technologies across Africa, the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed Thursday.
This new pledge builds on the $2.2 billion in financing mobilized at the inaugural Africa Clean Cooking Summit held in Paris in 2024, pushing the total amount of committed funding for the continent’s clean cooking transition to more than $3.1 billion. All allocated funds will go toward scaling up access to cleaner alternative fuels, modern low-emission stoves, and supporting infrastructure across African nations.
The funding announcement came during a virtual high-level meeting on African clean cooking co-convened by the IEA and the Kenyan government. Attendees gathered to review progress delivered since the 2024 Paris summit and outline key priorities ahead of the second summit scheduled for later this year.
The urgent need for this investment remains clear: nearly 1 billion people across Africa still lack access to clean cooking solutions, forcing them to rely on charcoal, firewood and other high-polluting traditional fuels. According to IEA data, household air pollution from these dirty fuels contributes to roughly 850,000 premature deaths across the continent every year. The transition to clean cooking – which encompasses low-emission alternatives such as ethanol, biogas and electric stoves – cuts dangerous indoor air pollution and delivers transformative public health benefits for millions of vulnerable households, particularly for women and children who typically bear the burden of collecting fuel and managing household cooking.
Friday’s meeting brought together a cross-section of global leaders, including Kenyan President William Ruto, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Lerato Mataboge, and IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, among other stakeholders.
“Access to clean cooking is one of the most impactful yet overlooked challenges of our time,” U.S. Energy Secretary Wright noted during the meeting, emphasizing that the issue directly shapes daily life for billions of people, with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups.
President Ruto echoed the call for greater investment, stressing that financing remains the single largest barrier to achieving universal clean cooking access across the continent. “Ambition alone is not enough. It must be backed by investment,” Ruto said.
IEA data shared during the meeting shows that progress is already underway: approximately one-third of the commitments announced at the 2024 Paris summit, equal to $740 million, has already been deployed for clean cooking projects across 22 African countries. Birol noted that the new $900 million pledge signals growing global momentum for the transition, with additional commitments expected ahead of the upcoming second summit.
Alongside the funding announcement, the IEA released new data showing that 30+ African countries have introduced 121 new national clean cooking policies since the 2024 Paris summit. These countries represent roughly 80% of the African population currently without access to clean cooking solutions. The agency is now working alongside the African Union to support governments in strengthening national policy frameworks under a continent-wide strategy and action plan, in preparation for the next summit.
In a related move to address emerging supply chain risks, the IEA launched a new public-private Clean Cooking Security Programme designed to strengthen global supply chains for clean cooking fuels, with a specific focus on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The initiative was developed in response to shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, which disrupted roughly 30% of globally traded LPG – a fuel that more than 3.4 billion people worldwide rely on for their primary cooking energy needs. The new program will provide technical assistance to countries working to improve their fuel security, while also facilitating greater international cooperation to build more resilient clean cooking supply chains.
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