The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has committed $2 billion over the next decade to support clean cooking solutions in Africa. This pledge was made at a landmark summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, held recently in Paris. The bank's president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, announced that 20% of all AfDB's energy project financing would now be directed towards promoting safe alternatives to cooking with charcoal, wood and biomass.
French President Emmanuel Macron lauded the AfDB's leadership role and commitment to delivering clean cooking in Africa during a meeting with heads of state, government officials and leaders of international organizations at the Elysee Palace. He also highlighted the outcome of the summit - $2.2 billion pledges from public and private sectors for clean cooking initiatives.
Macron said, “As part of the Paris Pact for People and the Planet, and with the commitment of Tanzania, Norway, the International Energy Agency, the African Development Bank, and many other partners, we are taking a step forward against this silent scourge today. We are mobilizing $2.2 billion to provide clean alternatives to populations in Africa.”
Dr Adesina noted that an alarming 1.2 billion people in Africa lack access to clean cooking facilities. He stressed that it was time to end the sight of African women and girls walking kilometers each day under heavy loads just to cook daily family meals. He also highlighted that while tools for enabling clean cooking access are readily available and affordable, they have not been sufficiently prioritized.
“This momentous summit on clean cooking in Africa is the largest ever gathering of leaders and policy makers dedicated to confronting the issue of access to clean cooking in Africa," Adesina added.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania emphasized that successfully advancing the clean cooking agenda in Africa would contribute towards protecting the environment, climate health and ensuring gender equality.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway echoed these sentiments, saying, “Improving access to clean cooking is about improving health outcomes, reducing emissions, and creating opportunities for economic growth."
The African Development Bank's pledge of $200 million per year represents a significant contribution towards the $4 billion per year needed to enable African families to have access to clean cooking by 2030. This lack of clean cooking facilities is not only a major cause of premature death in Africa but also one of the main causes of deforestation on the continent.
International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Birol declared that the summit had delivered an emphatic commitment to an issue that has been ignored for too long. He added that the IEA would continue to play a convening role to engage more willing partners and generate new funds to help meet the annual capital investment requirement of $4 billion between now and 2030.
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