AFRICAN CSOs POSITION STATEMENT ON CLEAN COOKING IN AFRICA

This statement, authored by African Civil Society Organizations, is intended for the attention of organisers and participants of the IEA Clean Cooking in Africa Summit, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024, in Paris, France. 

We present this statement with a profound sense of duty and responsibility towards the future of the African people and the continent. As we stand on the brink of transformative change, it is crucial that our voices, representing a diverse mosaic of cultures, communities, and interests, are heard.

Out of the 2.3 billion people without access to clean cooking forms globally, more than 900 million are in Africa. Four out of five Africans still use traditional means of heating such as open fires, traditional stoves, wood, charcoal, animal dung, and other polluting fuels to cook their meals, thereby endangering their health and contributing to environmental degradation through pollution and deforestation. 

In 2022, approximately 3.2 million people died from complications resulting from household air pollution through the use of polluting and inefficient cooking fossil fuels and technologies. Women and children constitute the bulk of these fatalities, underscoring the disproportionate burden on the most vulnerable in our society. 

Lack of access to clean cooking methods imposes hardships on citizens, perpetuates poverty, and worsens social inequality. This, effectively, makes access to sufficient energy a fundamental right that policymakers, decision-makers, and development stakeholders must collectively strive to achieve. 

Progress towards increasing the proportion of the global population relying primarily on clean fuels and technology for cooking (SDG7) is, however, currently off-track. If the world continues on the same trajectory, a staggering 60 percent of the global population will be without access to clean cooking in 2030.

For the world to convene in Paris, France for the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, it means that the long overdue issue of clean cooking is gaining political and high-level attention. This is good for Africa and the world.

Yet several concerns arise. In particular, we are mystified that a summit of such enormous importance to Africa is being held outside the continent. The decision to host the summit in France neither inspires confidence nor gives a positive impression. Rather, it suggests that Africans are not in control of the agenda concerning an issue of extreme importance to them. This, consequently, waters down a well-intended summit. 

The irony of hosting such an important summit in France cannot be overlooked. France is engaged in oil and gas expansion and exploration projects across Africa, contributing to the energy poverty and the climate crisis the continent is currently facing.

We are exasperated and shocked that the clean cooking summit has been hijacked by the same forces responsible for and determined to perpetuate Africa’s dependency on a failed energy system. While liquified petroleum gas (LPG) has been promoted as the core solution, it has only yielded short-term benefits while reach and access in rural areas in Africa remains limited.

Yet Africa boasts cleaner, sustainable and affordable alternatives in its abundant renewable energy sources. Cleaner and safer cooking solutions must be integrated into energy policy, with essential funding allocated to make electricity accessible and affordable for the hundreds of millions of energy-poor Africans..

This crucial summit, therefore, presents an unparalleled opportunity to address the clean cooking crisis. This summit must proffer real solutions that prioritise Africa’s energy needs. One that centres the voice and leadership of Africa, recognizing its renewable energy resources and their pivotal role in the continent's development. 

To initiate a meaningful dialogue ahead, during and after the summit, we urge you to:

• Ensure and guarantee the inclusion of community and CSO voices in the global clean cooking discourse

  The IEA has indicated that the Summit will bring together more than  800 stakeholders from governments, the private sector, development partners, international organisations, philanthropies and civil society. From the participants list published by the IEA, it is clear that there is hardly any participation of CSOs from Africa, yet the agenda of the forum was to chart a way forward to accelerating the progress of clean cooking in Africa. According to the UN SDG7 Tracking report-2021, four out of ten people without access to clean cooking live in Africa and most end-users rely heavily on biomass fuels for their cooking. African CSOs work directly with communities to address the challenges they face. Civil society groups play a key role in policy development on clean cooking, creating awareness on clean cooking technologies, demystifying cultural beliefs and practices that hinder clean cooking transitions, and building trust in the uptake of new technologies and approaches. The involvement of African partners should, therefore, be as inclusive and transparent as possible. And it must be done in a way that promotes equality and meaningful dialogue to ensure that the genuine needs and interests of Africans are reflected in any collective outcomes. 

• Increase financial and technological flow for clean cooking solutions by and for Africa

  There is an urgent need to provide affordable access to cleaner and modern cooking solutions.. At COP28, the IEA declared that Africa needed an annual investment of USD 4 billion to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030. We therefore demand increased public and private investments in clean cooking. Additional public funds should be directed towards de-risking markets and providing subsidies to address energy poverty in Africa. These finances should also be channelled to the end users who shoulder the burden of assessing and transitioning to cleaner and safer cooking technologies.

• Acknowledge the role of clean energy in fast-tracking clean cooking progress and Africa’s energy sovereignty

  Africa possesses abundant untapped clean energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal that can be harnessed to accelerate the adoption of clean cooking solutions. Several multilateral development banks and private financial institutions persist in advocating for LPG as part of the transition to clean cooking. Research has shown that while LPG initially offered short-term benefits in Africa, its long-term efficacy in rural areas has fallen short of expectations. Our position remains that more investments must be directed towards solar, wind and other clean forms of energy. Renewable energy systems must also be decentralised. Bridging the energy gap is the best approach to achieving clean cooking targets by 2030.

• Acknowledge and appreciate access to clean forms of cooking as an important part of Africa’s development, energy and manufacturing plan

  Solving the cooking challenge is not a charitable endeavour by donors. Instead, it is a national and continental responsibility that calls for policy prioritisation in each country and collaboration across the continent.

• Appreciate that addressing the cooking challenge must be driven by social and public responsibility, not markets

  Public grants and concessional finance play a catalytic role in addition to boosting private sector investments. Private capital can only play a role under regulated conditions.

• Desist from proffering false solutions that will prolong the crisis. Carbon credits must play no role in financing clean cooking

  Carbon markets are a distraction to the mission of meeting basic needs guaranteed almost everywhere else on the planet.

• Advance a holistic approach to clean cooking

  Access and use of (clean and affordable) energy should go beyond cooking. Every African household deserves energy for use in farming and food storage. Every African household deserves to own a fridge as nearly everyone in the developed world does.