Samia's clean cooking summit mobilises $2.2 billion
President Samia Suluhu Hassan speaks during a high-level Clean Cooking Summit at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France yesterday. PHOTO | STATE HOUSE
What you need to know:
- Speaking during the event, President Hassan called for generous replenishment of the African Development Fund that includes $12 billion for clean cooking
Dar es Salaam. The first ever high-level Clean Cooking Summit, which focused on providing clean cooking access in Africa, managed to mobilise $2.2 billion, a significant milestone in efforts to address a challenge affecting women and children.
The event, which took place in Paris, France, was co-chaired by President Samia Suluhu Hassan alongside African Development Bank Group president Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Fatih Birol.
Speaking during the event, President Hassan called for generous replenishment of the African Development Fund that includes $12 billion for clean cooking.
“Insufficient funding and a lack of awareness about the economic opportunities within the clean cooking industry hampers efforts to scale interventions. Moreover, development of the needed solutions is limited by insufficient research and innovation, President Hasan said.
As such, during the summit, more than 100 countries, international institutions, companies and civil society organisations also signed onto The Clean Cooking Declaration, pledging to make the issue a priority and enhancing efforts towards achieving the universal access for all goal.
The landmark event aims to drive significant change in clean cooking access for the nearly one billion Africans using polluting fuels, which cause premature deaths of approximately half a million women and children annually.
Among core purposes for the event was to mobilise funds, which according to the AfDB, $4 billion is needed annually to achieve clean cooking access for 250 million African women by 2030.
Speaking at the Summit, President Hassan remarked: “Ensuring clean cooking access for all in Africa needs adequate, affordable and sustainable financing for appropriate solutions and innovations; adequate global attention; and smart policies and partnerships.”
“Successfully advancing the clean cooking agenda in Africa would contribute towards protecting the environment, climate, health, and ensuring gender equality,” she said adding that the summit underscores the leaders’ commitment to advancing the agenda and providing a framework towards universal adoption of clean cooking energy and technologies across the continent.
IEA’s executive director Mr Birol later revealed that the summit had mobilised $2.2 billion in new announcements from governments and the private sector to tackle this crucial health, gender and climate issue.
“We still have a long way to go, but the outcome of this summit, $2.2 billion committed, can help support fundamental rights such as health, gender equality and education while also reducing emissions and restoring forests,” he said.
“And, the commitments announced today go beyond the money alone – they set out concrete steps on how governments, institutions and the private sector can work together to solve the clean cooking challenge this decade.”
AfDB president Adesina said the bank will increase financing for clean cooking to $200 million annually over the next decade, while also scaling-up the provision of blended finance for clean cooking through the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA).
