U$4b needed to close clean cooking funding gap for African women
Development partners will gather in Paris on Tuesday and are expected to pledge towards the U$4 billion needed to provide clean cooking access for 250 million African women by 2030.African Development Bank Group President Dr Akinwumi Adesina will co-chair the Clean Cooking Summit in Paris, alongside President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, and International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol.
The landmark event is aimed at driving significant change in clean cooking access for the nearly one billion Africans using polluting fuels, which cause the premature deaths of approximately half a million women and children every year.
Women and girls spend up to five hours a day collecting fuel and cooking. This leaves little time for education and social or economic activities. Worldwide, the annual economic cost of women's and girl's time searching for fuel wood is estimated at U$800 billion. The health costs are as high as U$1.4 trillion.
The capital investment needed to ensure universal clean cooking access in Africa by 2030 is U$4 billion annually – a fraction of the U$2.8 trillion invested globally in energy each year.
The summit aims to mobilise this much-needed finance by bringing together governments, development partners, private companies and NGOs to make concrete commitments and develop action-oriented strategies to accelerate progress on clean cooking.
They are expected to pledge increased funding for clean cooking, with development partners committing to allocate a higher share of their energy portfolios and to work through private capital arms to bring more financing. Governments will prioritise clean cooking in national planning, create funded implementation programs, and introduce proven policies to support scaling clean cooking solutions.
Strong support
Adesina has committed the Bank's support and outlined a three-pronged approach to achieve universal clean cooking access in Africa. It entails governments directing at least 5% of their annual energy investments towards clean cooking solutions and having multilateral and development finance institutions set aside a significant share of their annual energy financing for clean cooking solutions, including concessional blended financing and guarantees.
At COP28, Adesina said that the Bank Group will channel U$2 billion for clean cooking over the next decade.
Clean cooking initiatives are eligible under the Climate Action Window (CAW) of the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank Group’s concessional window for 37 of Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable countries.
During COP28, the Bank Group launched its first call, with U$258 million in mostly grant funding, for climate adaptation proposals through the CAW, which seeks to raise U$13 billion to accelerate climate adaptation in the ADF countries. Increased adoption of cleaner cooking fuels such as electricity, biogas, and sustainable biofuels will improve the health and well-being of Africa's women and children and also protect Africa’s forests.
Several African governments have begun taking proactive measures to accelerate clean cooking adoption. Kenya has established a Clean Cooking Delivery Unit and introduced special electricity tariffs. Industry, international organizations, and multilateral forums will affirm their support for achieving clean cooking targets. - Distributed by APO Group on behalf of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).