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Press release: green bioLPG for clean cooking can be produced at scale in Africa from renewable resources

Date
23rd September 2020
Categories
General

New York and Loughborough, 23 September 2020

The ground breaking new report, “ASSESSING POTENTIAL FOR BIOLPG PRODUCTION AND USE WITHIN THE COOKING ENERGY SECTOR IN AFRICA”, was released today by the Modern Energy Cooking Services programme (“MECS”) and the Global LPG Partnership (“GLPGP”).

The Report findings show that affordable, green bioLPG is feasible to produce at impactful scale in African markets in the near and medium term, utilising renewable feedstocks such as municipal solid waste and agricultural residues.

Many Sub-Saharan Africa countries wish to expand use of LPG as bottled gas, in order to support the urgent need of their populations for clean cooking fuel to meet SDG7 on ‘energy access for all’. The prospect of green bioLPG has excited global institutions and capital markets to look with fresh eyes at the benefits of LPG deployment and use. Continued use of existing substantial investments in LPG infrastructure and augmenting them now become supportive of green ambitions in developing countries and in the international institutions which assist them.

The Report work was carried out by a GLPGP-led team of global experts on renewable feedstocks, chemical process technologies, finance, and LPG policy and market structures. It was supported by a grant from the Modern Energy Cooking Services (“MECS”) programme funded by the UK Government and directed by Loughborough University.

MECS Program Director, at Loughborough University, Professor Ed Brown, said: “MECS is excited about the potential of green, bioLPG to make a contribution of size and impact to satisfaction of African, and indeed global, clean cooking needs”.

MECS is the 5 year, £40 million / $50 million program, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whose mission is to make urgently needed, modern clean cooking a reality for the developing world, with a particular emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa.

GLPGP Chairman, Mr. Kimball Chen, commented that: “The willingness of MECS to support GLPGP work on green, bioLPG as an evidence-based clean cooking solution has been crucial to the emergence of renewable LPG into near-term possibility”.

GLPGP is the UN, EU and development institution-backed NGO that collaborates with developing country governments in their efforts to scale up appropriate LPG availability and use, especially to serve clean cooking needs.

The report can be accessed here.