The governments of Kenya and Norway today (Sept 22) convened the first high-level event on clean cooking ever held at the United Nations General Assembly, bringing together government leaders, ministers, UN agencies, multilateral development banks and other partners to sustain political momentum ahead of the second Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa.
The event was opened and moderated by IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, with keynote addresses by President William Ruto of Kenya and Norway's Minister of International Development Åsmund Aukrust. The session brought together leaders from government, international organisations and the private sector. It was held in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Clean Cooking Alliance, and in cooperation with UN Energy. Speakers included US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, World Bank President Ajay Banga and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed. Closing remarks were delivered by Dymphna van der Lans, the CEO of the Clean Cooking Alliance, a multilateral initiative now hosted by the IEA.
President William Ruto of Kenya said: "Africa has the solutions and the political will to achieve universal access to clean cooking. What we need now is investment and delivery at the scale of our ambition. Kenya is committed to working with African governments and our international partners to turn commitments into investment, investment into implementation, and our shared ambition into universal access."
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway said: "Nearly four in five households in Sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to clean cooking. Women bear the greatest burden, risking their health to provide a cooked meal for their family. At the Summit in 2024 we demonstrated that bringing together political leaders, development partners, philanthropies, and the private sector can make a difference. More than $700 million of the $2.2 billion pledge has been disbursed. Access to clean cooking has become a national development priority, and several countries in Africa are reporting rapid progress. Let us seize on this momentum to support investments at scale."
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said: "Lack of access to clean cooking is one of the most important global energy and development issues - it is having a deeply detrimental effect on the lives of close to 2 billion people worldwide, around half of them in Africa. The IEA has worked for more than two decades to advance access to clean cooking and elevate it on the global agenda. Our first Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa in 2024 was a landmark moment, and we are now focused on mobilising new commitments for our second Summit in Nairobi in January. With $900 million already pledged, we are working hard with our partners to build on this to help improve the lives of as many people as possible."
Participants underlined that clean cooking remains one of the world's most pressing energy, health and development challenges. Nearly 2 billion people still lack access to clean cooking globally, contributing to an estimated 2.5 million premature deaths each year from household air pollution. The burden falls disproportionately on women and girls, who often spend hours collecting fuel and tending traditional stoves - time lost to education, employment and economic empowerment. The environmental toll is equally significant: emissions and deforestation linked to traditional cooking practices account for 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, comparable to those from international aviation and shipping combined.
To mobilise further investment and policy action, the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa hosted in Paris by the IEA and partners was attended by delegations from 60 countries and mobilised more than $2.2 billion in new financial commitments. Since then, the IEA has tracked the delivery against those commitments and more than a third of the pledged funding has been deployed in concrete projects across 28 African countries, while more than 120 new clean cooking policies have been introduced. The pace of people gaining access to clean cooking in Africa is now 30% higher than the average over the past five years, despite headwinds from the disruptions to energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
The discussions at the event today (Sept 22) focused on concrete steps to keep clean cooking high on the international agenda ahead of the second Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, to be hosted in Nairobi on 27-28 January 2027. The Summit will be co-chaired by Kenya, Norway, the United States and the IEA, with the support of the African Union and the African Development Bank Group.
Governments and institutions have been invited to participate in the Summit and match ambition with financing and delivery. As of July, the Summit co-chairs had already secured an additional $900 million in new financial commitments for clean cooking solutions across the continent, with further commitments expected to be mobilised ahead of the Summit in January.
Speakers also noted that clean cooking has become a fixture of the wider international agenda, featuring prominently under the last three COP and G20 Presidencies and increasingly reflected in countries' Nationally Determined Contributions and Energy Compacts under Mission 300.
