AfDB commits $2 bn to clean cooking in Africa

The African Development Bank Group has pledged $2 billion over 10 years towards clean cooking solutions in Africa – a major step along the road to saving the lives of 600,000, mainly women and children each year.

Speaking at a landmark summit on Clean Cooking in Africa held in Paris, the bank’s president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said the institution would now commit 20 per cent of all its financing of energy projects towards promoting safe alternatives to cooking with charcoal, wood and biomass.

Receiving heads of state and government and leaders of international organisations at the Elysee Palace to discuss the outcome of the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the African Development Bank’s leading role and commitment to delivering clean cooking in Africa. The summit resulted in $2.2 billion pledges from the public and private sectors. 

Macron said: “As part of the Paris Pact for People and the Planet, and with the commitment of Tanzania, Norway, the International Energy Agency, the African Development Bank, and many other partners, we are taking a step forward against this silent scourge today. We are mobilising $2.2 billion to provide clean alternatives to populations in Africa.

“France pledges to invest €100 million over five years in clean cooking methods and will mobilise even more through the Paris Pact for People and the Planet and Finance in Common.”

Addressing the summit plenary, the African Development Bank president noted that in Africa, a staggering 1.2 billion people lacked access to clean cooking facilities.

The summit was co-chaired by the United Republic of Tanzania through President Samia Suluhu Hassan; Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre; African Development Bank president, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, and the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Dr Fatih Birol.