Access to clean cooking fuels and technologies remains one of Africa’s most urgent and overlooked challenges. The IEA is now looking to Washington to accelerate progress.
Clean cooking in Africa, a persistent gap in fuels and technologies
For years, International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol has argued that access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in Africa deserves far greater priority on the global agenda. According to Axios, the IEA is now increasingly looking to the United States as a potential strategic partner. The widespread use of firewood, charcoal, open fires, and inefficient stoves continues to pose severe health and economic risks across the continent. This is why clean cooking in Africa is gaining renewed attention, as governments and institutions seek to ensure safer, more modern, and sustainable cooking solutions for millions of people.
The IEA’s latest report, Universal Access to Clean Cooking in Africa, estimates that nearly 2 billion people worldwide still lack access to what are considered clean cooking solutions. These populations rely on highly polluting fuels that undermine health, damage the environment, and slow economic development. The crisis disproportionately affects women and girls, exacerbates gender inequality, and weakens economic security, yet the agency notes that it could be addressed with existing technologies and relatively modest investments.
Across Africa, nearly four households out of five still depend on traditional fuels for cooking. Women and girls bear the greatest burden, often spending hours each day collecting firewood and cooking over smoky fires, inhaling toxic fumes. The IEA estimates that cooking with these fuels contributes to more than 800,000 premature deaths every year on the continent.
Global efforts to scale clean cooking in Africa
The first global summit dedicated to clean cooking in Africa was held in Paris in May 2024. The event mobilized $2.2 billion in financial commitments from national governments and the private sector, with participation from nearly 60 countries, international organizations, and senior executives from major energy companies.
In July 2025, the IEA reported that more than $470 million of the pledges made in Paris had already been disbursed. At the same time, the agency published a new roadmap outlining a cost-effective pathway to achieve universal access to non-polluting cooking solutions across sub-Saharan Africa by 2040.
The IEA is now seeking to secure additional commitments through a second summit planned for next year in Kenya. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will serve as co-chair alongside Kenyan President William Ruto, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Fatih Birol himself.
The agency has identified several viable alternatives to traditional cooking fuels, including liquefied petroleum gas, advanced biomass stoves, biogas, and electrification. However, the IEA has also stressed that universal access to electricity in Africa remains a distant goal, despite technological advances and rising investment levels.
Could the United States accelerate clean cooking financing?
Birol is now pushing for greater equity-based financing and sees an opportunity in the United States’ upcoming G20 presidency. He is expected to reach out to U.S. officials to open discussions on scaling clean cooking initiatives.
This strategy faces political headwinds. Officials within the Trump administration have previously criticized the IEA, arguing that the agency focuses too heavily on climate protection. At the same time, the U.S. government is sharply reducing international aid to other countries. Despite this, Birol believes there is room for alignment with the U.S. president on the importance of clean cooking as a development and health priority.
Birol has also confirmed that clean cooking in Africa will be placed on the agenda at the Davos summit next month and at the IEA ministerial meeting scheduled for February, signaling that the issue is set to remain a central topic in global energy and development discussions.
