About this report
Clean cooking access is a defining challenge for Africa’s prosperity. While the number of people without access to clean cooking has halved globally since 2010, the number in sub-Saharan Africa continues to rise. This harms health, economic development, and the environment – contributing to 815 000 premature deaths annually and significant deforestation.
In a new report, Universal Access to Clean Cooking in Africa: Progress update and roadmap to implementation, the International Energy Agency (IEA) provides an updated picture of where things stand today, where efforts are gaining ground, and where urgent action is still needed. This includes tracking the implementation of the USD 2.2 billion in public and private commitments made at the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking for Africa, which the IEA co-hosted with the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, the Prime Minister of Norway, and the President of the African Development Bank Group.
The report introduces a new scenario – the Accelerating Clean Cooking and Electricity Services Scenario (ACCESS) – which charts a pathway for all African countries to accelerate efforts by replicating the best historic rates of progress seen in other leading countries globally. This country-by-country analysis builds on the first-ever mapping of clean cooking infrastructure across Africa, as well as an assessment of clean cooking fuel availability and affordability in each region.
The report is the latest entry in the IEA’s 25-year history of tracking progress on energy access and promoting clean cooking as a crucial part of the global energy agenda. The tracking in this report will continue to be updated in the future.