The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced on Thursday that $900-million of new commitments had been made to the international Clean Cooking in Africa (CCA) initiative. Further, of the $2.2-billion pledged at the inaugural CCA summit in Paris in 2024, $740-million had already been deployed, spread across 22 African countries.
“At the 2024 Summit, I committed that we would track every dollar pledged and every stove reaching households,” highlighted IEA executive director Fatih Birol. “Our focus now is to maintain this momentum, mobilise further investment, and work with countries to turn commitments into lasting impact for the millions of people who still lack access to clean cooking.”
These figures were released at a high-level virtual event to review progress with CCA, jointly organised and with the participation of the six co-chairs of the initiative. These were (in the order given by the IEA) Kenyan President William Ruto, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, AU Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, African Development Bank President Sidi Ould Tah, and Birol himself.
“Africa cannot achieve sustainable development while nearly one billion of its people still rely on polluting cooking fuels,” asserted Ruto. “Our task is clear: to turn ambition into investment, investment into action, and action into lasting impact for the people of Africa. We must design inclusive financing and infrastructure to ensure no one is left behind. Scaling up financing is not charity; it is an investment in Africa’s future prosperity.”
