COP31: Two-thirds of Africa’s US$2.2bn clean cooking pledges yet to be delivered

Two years after a pledge of $2.2 billion to expand clean cooking in Africa, only $740 million has been delivered, leaving $1.46 billion still outstanding. This was revealed at a Leaders' Roundtable on Clean Cooking in Africa during COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, on November 12. The pledges were initially made at the first Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa in Paris in 2024, co-chaired by Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been tracking these commitments, with its Executive Director Fatih Birol reporting that about a third of the money, or $740 million, has been disbursed.

Tanzania's President Samia expressed optimism that collective efforts are beginning to yield tangible results, noting that by July 2026, approximately $740 million of the Paris summit commitment had been deployed across 22 African countries. She emphasized that success should be measured by both the resources mobilized and the number of families gaining access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable clean cooking solutions.

Nearly one billion Africans, or about six in every ten people on the continent, still lack access to clean cooking, resulting in around 850,000 premature deaths annually.

Birol called it "one of the greatest injustices in this world," highlighting that traditional cooking generates 1.2 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to the emissions from international aviation and shipping combined. Kenya's special envoy, Ali Mohamed, on behalf of President William Ruto, stressed that Africa's clean cooking challenge requires at least $2 billion annually.

The OPEC Fund for International Development's president, Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, estimated Africa's need at $4 billion annually, less than the world's investment in energy for a single day.

Norway's special envoy, Hans Olav Ibrekk, emphasized that clean cooking is climate action and urged moving from commitments to implementation at scale. Lesotho's Deputy Prime Minister warned that isolated projects and pilot interventions are insufficient for universal access, while Uganda's representative noted the country's strategy aims for universal access by 2040, with an intermediate goal of 50% access by 2030.

Uganda has also banned charcoal. The next challenge will be at the second Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 27-28, 2027, which Birol will co-chair with President Ruto. Birol pledged to "fix this problem and solve this biggest injustice of humanity."