Sustainable Scaling: Meeting the Clean Cooking Challenge in Africa
Introduction:
This report is a collaborative effort between the African Energy Commission (AFREC) under the African Clean Cooking Programme, Modern Energy Cooking Services Programme (MECS), and Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank with reviewers from a global community of practitioners and experts.
The AFREC report was initiated at the margins of COP 28 held in Dubai in December 2023. The African Clean Cooking Programme is an AFREC lead initiative called for by the African Ministers responsible for Transport and Energy during the 4th Ordinary Session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Transport, Transcontinental and Inter-regional Infrastructure and Energy, held on 12-15 September 2023 in Zanzibar, Tanzania in response to the clean cooking challenge in Africa.
This report aims to help establish a baseline and track progress on clean cooking in the continent, disseminate information on the status of clean cooking across Africa, support the development of evidenced based and targeted clean cooking programmes, and establish an African Clean Cooking Facility to raise funds and support African Union Member States in the transition to clean cooking.
Addressing clean cooking in Africa necessitates a multifaceted approach rooted in the commitments of African governments and facilitated by African institutions in collaboration with international partners. This report is a response to the increasing global interest in clean cooking by providing a comprehensive overview of the sector’s current knowledge landscape. Building on the AU aspirations for economic growth, it emphasizes the significant differences among African states and explores various interpretations of how resources raised to tackle the issue should be best targeted, relying on evidence-based insights. The study considers how progress on clean cooking is key to African economic development in the coming decade, both reducing the costs of inaction and positively supporting a just transition to a resilient economy.
About African Energy Commission
The African Energy Commission (AFREC) is a specialized technical agency of the African Union Commission (AUC), under the Department of Infrastructure and Energy created by Decision of the 37th Summit of the OAU African Heads of States and Governments in July 2001 and officially launched by the African Union Ministers in charge of Energy in February 2008 in Algiers, Algeria. As per its convention, AFREC has a broad mandate to develop and recommend policies, strategies, research and plans based on AU Member states, sub-regional, regional and continental development priorities including on clean cooking, energy transition, energy efficiency, data and statistics, oil and gas, and bioenergy.
The launch of the AFREC Publication
AFREC report was officially launched on 12th of November 2024, at COP29 in Azerbaijan, at a high-level side event “Addressing Clean Cooking Challenges in Africa: Call for African Leadership”, where H.E Dr. Philip Isdor Mpango, the Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and other African leaders launched the event and made significant remarks on clean cooking and just transition.
The full report can be accessed at the below link: