Our mission: Accelerating access to clean, electric cooking
Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is the FCDO’s flagship research and innovation programme accelerating the uptake of clean, modern energy cooking in developing countries, with a focus on Sub‑Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia — regions where reliance on polluting cooking fuels remains widespread, posing serious health and environmental risks.
MECS generates and applies policy‑relevant research to support governments and key stakeholders to integrate modern energy cooking into national strategies and planning; it funds feasibility studies, pilots and demonstrations of clean cooking technologies and business models; and supports scaling of appliance manufacturing and distribution through venture-led R&D. It also contributes to global market‑shaping initiatives, including the World Bank Clean Cooking Fund to unlock public and private investment in the sector.
Led by Loughborough University, CLASP and the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), MECS has supported a network to date of over 250 innovators, academics, entrepreneurs, and civil society partners.
The programme directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 which calls for “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” by 2030, with a focus on SDG 7.1.2 on “clean cooking fuels and technology”. It also supports progress on nine other SDGs, including SDG 13 on “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”, and the Paris Agreement which seeks to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
MECS is the lead modern cooking initiative under the Ayrton Fund for clean energy innovation, part of the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) portfolio.
Access the library of MECS resources
MECS has a vast suite of outputs, tools and methodologies which present a rigorous evidence base for a range of clean cooking solutions, with a focus on electric cooking (eCooking). All resources are freely available for download from this website (no paywalls!), and we invite you to access these and share with your colleagues and collaborators. Highlights include:
Cooking Diaries is a MECS research methodology that combines recording qualitatively ‘how’ people cook with quantitative measurements of energy consumption to understand what people cook, how they cook, when (frequency of certain dishes), and how compatible these practices are with innovative modern energy cooking products and services.
Access the Cooking DiariesPioneered by MECS in 2019, eCookbooks, or energy cookbooks, measure the energy, time and cost savings of cooking traditional dishes using energy efficient electric appliances. They package and present complex findings around energy and cooking in a digestible and accessible way so households, utility companies and policy-makers can make better informed decisions around fuels and appliances for cooking.
Access the series of eCookbooksEnergy 4 Impact has collaborated with MECS to produce the Financing Clean Cooking series. Taken as a whole, the five reports in the series comprise a detailed analysis of the financing mechanisms currently being used within the sector, whilst offering recommendations to donors on the critical financial interventions needed to support the transition to clean and modern energy cooking.
Access the Financing Clean Cooking seriesMECS has conducted a Global Market Assessment for electric cooking to identify where the greatest opportunities and challenges for a scale up of electric cooking in the global south lie.
Access the online GMA visualisation toolThis set of MECS Policy Briefs, specifically designed to aid policy makers in scaling access to clean, electric cooking, provide a country-specific overview of the current situation for electricity access and clean cooking, the potential for eCooking, and a socio-economic and environmental cost and benefit summary.
Access the Policy Briefs