Food & Climate
Access to clean cooking in Africa is a challenge and an elusive goal. Billions of dollars are required to provide it, while most of the continent’s population lacks access to it. Women spend 4 hours a day collecting firewood for cooking, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency
While the number of people without access to clean cooking has halved globally since 2010, the number in sub-Saharan Africa continues to rise.
This harms health, economic development, and the environment – contributing to 815 000 premature deaths annually and significant deforestation.
The report, Universal Access to Clean Cooking in Africa: Progress update and roadmap to implementation, the (IEA) provides an updated picture of where things stand today, where efforts are gaining ground, and where urgent action is still needed, according to the report that seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
Clean cooking in Africa will require $37 billion
Achieving universal access to clean cooking in Africa will require $37 billion in cumulative investment to 2040, or roughly $2 billion per year, according to the roadmap laid out by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its latest report.
The roadmap envisions that 60% of the energy for the newly connected households will come from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and the rest from electricity, bioethanol, biogas and advanced biomass cookstoves. Urban areas would be able to reach near-complete access by 2035 while rural access would expand steadily through the 2030s, should countries receive necessary support from the international community.
“This new IEA report provides a clear, data-driven roadmap for every household across Africa to gain access,” said Fatih Birol, executive director, IEA.
“The problem is solvable with existing technologies, and it would cost less than 0.1% of total energy investment globally. But delivering on this will require stronger focus and coordinated action from governments, industry and development partners,” he added.
The IEA report also tracks the outcomes of the summit on clean cooking in Africa – held in May 2024 in Paris which mobilised over $2.2 billion in public and private sector commitments. More than $470 million of those commitments have already been disbursed, according to the report.
It is not a luxury
“Clean cooking is not a luxury. It’s an issue that touches every family, every day,” said Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan. “The African Union (AU) Dar es Salaam Declaration on clean cooking, signed earlier this year by 30 heads of state from across Africa and now adopted by the AU Assembly in February this year, is a clear signal of our commitment to making energy access and clean cooking a national and continental priority,” she added.
Following the summit on clean cooking in Africa, 10 out of the 12 African governments that were a part of the clean cooking in Africa summit have enacted or implemented new clean cooking policies.
Tanzania and Kenya demonstrated the largest increase in policy coverage since 2024. Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe are the sub-Saharan Africa countries that have the widest coverage of key clean cooking policies, the report said.
The policies included government programmes that supported clean cooking fuels like LPG, tax incentives for switching to clean cooking and cooking stove distribution programmes, amongst others.
For nearly two thirds of sub-Saharan Africans affordability remains a major constraint as they would need to spend more than 10% of their income to adopt clean cooking solutions. To make clean cooking more affordable for the underserved population would require special attention by governments and policy focus.
IEA’s report estimates that the number of pre-mature deaths for Africa is around 815,000, and that improving access to clean cooking will improve women’s lives tremendously. Women also spend up to four hours a day gathering fuel for cooking, including firewood. This time could have been otherwise spent in gainful economic activity or rest and leisure, according to “Health Policy Watch“.
The 2024 National Population and Housing Census in Uganda also indicates that only 3.8% of households use clean fuel for cooking that most households and institutions rely heavily on wood and charcoal to prepare meals.
These two fuels are key contributors to global warming. Fast tracts of forests have been cut over the years to secure wood and charcoal, wrecking profound damage on the environment.
Uganda loses 122,000 hectares of forest cover annually, according to the Ministry of Water and Environment. Forests are important in mitigating climate change because trees absorb harmful carbon dioxide. According to the 2024 National Population and Housing Census, 65% of households use firewood as a main source of fuel and 48.6% use charcoal as their primary cooking fuel, according to “msn”.