Advancing the Clean Cooking Agenda in Africa

Clean cooking remains one of Africa’s most pressing development challenges, and one of the most solvable. Around 1 billion people in Africa still cook with polluting fuels – half of the global total – and their number is still rising. Women and children bear the brunt. Yet universal access by around 2040 would require around USD 2 billion a year in Africa, a small fraction of global energy investment.

Policy momentum has never been stronger. More than 120 new clean cooking policies and programmes were implemented or announced in sub-Saharan Africa between 2024 and early 2026. In 2025, 84% of people without access lived in countries that introduced a new policy. All 29 National Energy Compacts published under Mission 300 include clean cooking. Finance is following policy: at least 46% of the USD 740 million disbursed so far against the USD 2.2 billion committed at the 2024 Summit went to the twelve countries that pledged policy action.

Under today’s policies, ambitions remain out of reach. Despite this momentum, 1.4 billion people worldwide would still lack access to clean cooking in 2050 under today’s policies, more than two- thirds of them in Africa, and only 20 detailed regulatory reforms have been fully implemented since 2024. Turning announced plans into measures that are in force, funded and delivered is the central challenge ahead. Countries are ready to do more. 19 countries, home to around 690 million people without access – over 70% of Africa’s total – reported on 34 policy measures through the AFREC–IEA survey.

Beyond the 52% of responses on measures already in place, 39% concern measures they are willing to implement: acting on all of them would raise the number of measures in place by more than three- quarters. The greatest appetite lies in standards, regulation and supply chains. Clear priorities emerge for the policy pledge. 15 countries – home to more than half of Africa’s population without access – are willing to integrate clean cooking into building codes, followed by using carbon credit revenues to improve affordability and incentives for local production. Each country can build its pledge from these measures, at a pace that fits its national circumstances.

Support is available to turn pledges into results. To find opportunities for peer learning, AFREC and the IEA compared every pair of the 19 surveyed countries, matching the measures one country has in place with those the other is willing to adopt. In 88 of the 342 possible pairings, one country already has at least ten measures in place that the other is willing to adopt, a strong basis for exchanging experience. Investment also needs to grow about 2.5 times, from around USD 770 million in 2024 to around USD 2 billion a year, to reach universal access by around 2040. Local manufacturing, carbon finance and results-based finance offer growing opportunities where the right
rules are in place. AFREC, the IEA and their partners can help match country needs with finance and technical assistance. Nairobi is the moment to commit. At the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa on 27–28 January 2027, countries are invited to announce voluntary policy pledges, aiming to implement one to three measures by the end of 2027