Africa Secures $900M More to Fight Deadly Cooking Smoke

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African countries have secured $900 million in new funding to provide clean cooking technologies to millions of people, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday. The money will help replace polluting fuels like charcoal and firewood with cleaner alternatives such as ethanol, biogas, and electricity. These cleaner options reduce harmful indoor air pollution. The new pledges bring total commitments to more than $3.1 billion. This builds on $2.2 billion raised at the first Africa Clean Cooking Summit in Paris in 2024. Nearly 1 billion people across Africa still lack access to clean cooking. The IEA says smoke from traditional fuels causes about 850,000 premature deaths each year. The funding was announced during a virtual meeting hosted by the IEA and Kenya. Leaders reviewed progress since the Paris summit and set goals for the next meeting later this year. Kenyan President William Ruto said financing remains the biggest challenge. "Ambition alone is not enough. It must be backed by investment," he said. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright called clean cooking "one of the most impactful yet overlooked challenges of our time." He said it directly affects billions of people, especially women and children. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said about $740 million from the Paris pledges has already been deployed across 22 African countries. He expects more funding before the next summit. The IEA also reported that governments have introduced 121 new clean cooking policies in over 30 African countries since 2024. These countries are home to about 80% of Africans without clean cooking access. The agency launched a new Clean Cooking Security Programme to strengthen global supply chains for cooking fuels, especially liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). This follows shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz that affected about 30% of globally traded LPG. More than 3.4 billion people worldwide depend on LPG as their main cooking fuel.