The world has made immense progress in improving access to clean cooking facilities, but to date momentum has been slower in Africa. Today, 2 billion people worldwide – a quarter of the global population – still cook over open fires or on basic stoves, inhaling harmful smoke and spending hours in search of fuels such as firewood or animal waste. Since 2010, almost 1.5 billion people in Asia and Latin America gained access to modern cooking stoves and fuels, halving the number of people without clean cooking in the span of fifteen years. These efforts relied largely on major government initiatives to provide clean cooking, with around three quarters of those gaining access doing so through liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 17% from electricity, and 5% from other clean cooking solutions. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, the number of people without access has continued to grow, reaching around 1 billion today and affecting roughly four in every five households.

The lack of clean cooking harms health, economic development, education and the environment. It contributes to 815 000 premature deaths annually in Africa alone due to the health impacts of household air pollution. Across the continent, women and girls spend on average four hours a day gathering fuel and cooking, often foregoing education or remunerated activities as a result. The lack of clean cooking is also linked to the loss of 1.3 million hectares of forest each year – diminishing a key resource for the continent. The combined impact of this and direct emissions from a lack of clean cooking access is equivalent to a quarter of Africa’s energy-related CO₂ emissions today. 

Policy and financing commitments made at the 2024 Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa are being delivered. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Summit secured USD 2.2 billion in commitments from public and private sectors and policy pledges from twelve African governments. Since then, USD 470 million has been disbursed, well above the annual average required to ensure the Summit’s financing commitments are fully delivered by 2030.

Most people in sub-Saharan Africa live in countries that have accelerated their clean cooking efforts since 2024. Based on the latest tracking, more than 70% of Africans without access live in countries that have strengthened their clean cooking policy frameworks since 2024, with 40 new policies now in place. Ten of the twelve African countries represented at the Summit announced or implemented new policies highlighted in their pledges, with the United Republic of Tanzania and Kenya delivering the greatest improvement in coverage.  

Progress is set to build on existing success stories throughout Africa. Over the past five years, key countries in sub-Saharan Africa accelerated their efforts to address the clean cooking gap, with countries like Kenya and Nigeria extending access to 2.7% of their population annually – a rate comparable to other success stories around the world. LPG accounted for three quarters of all people in sub-Saharan Africa who switched to cleaner cooking over that same period.

Investment in clean cooking infrastructure in Africa has also been on the rise, led by the private sector. Based on a first-ever comprehensive tracking of investment into Africa’s cooking sector, the IEA estimates around USD 675 million of direct investments in infrastructure, stoves, and fuel distribution hardware occurred in 2023, a year-on-year increase of around 10%, led by growth in LPG distribution infrastructure. Based on the pipeline of announced projects and expected market growth, investment in Africa’s cooking sector is set to reach new highs in 2024 and 2025. 

Our new country-by-country analysis shows that, by matching the best rates of progress seen elsewhere, Africa could reach full access to clean cooking in around fifteen years. For this report, the IEA developed a new scenario, the Accelerating Clean Cooking and Electricity Services Scenario (ACCESS), which charts a pathway where all African countries replicate best historical rates of progress seen in other leading countries that share similar characteristics in terms of demography, affordability, resource availability and institutional governance. The scenario sees around 80 million people gaining clean cooking access each year in Africa – seven times the current pace. Cities achieve full access to clean cooking first, with almost 95% of Africa’s urban population gaining access by 2035. Southern Africa is projected to reach universal access first, followed by West, East and Central Africa.

Achieving full access relies on expanding the availability of a host of fuels and technologies, with LPG providing access for over 60% of those currently without. The ACCESS analysis employs new geospatial tools based on a first-ever mapping of all existing clean cooking-related infrastructure across sub-Saharan Africa. It assesses the cost and availability of clean cooking options down to each square kilometre and determines what options are most feasible and affordable. Based on this analysis, the ACCESS pathway finds that over 60% of people gaining access in Africa through to 2040 do so via LPG. But many fuels and technologies play a role including electricity (17%) bioethanol and biogas (11%) and advanced biomass cookstoves (10%).

Demand for all modern cooking fuels, infrastructure and equipment rises substantially across Africa, requiring a scale-up of related supply chains. Modern energy use for cooking in Africa increases six-fold by 2040 in the ACCESS, adding the equivalent energy demand of Qatar. In absolute terms, by 2040 demand for LPG is just shy of 1 mbd or 8% of today’s global LPG market. This requires an expansion in port, primary storage and distribution infrastructure across the continent. Electricity use for cooking grows by 65 TWh over the same period – equivalent to 15% of Africa’s electricity generation today – aided by efforts to improve grid reliability and further extend electricity distribution. Bioethanol demand also rises to 6.4 billion litres annually, around 6% of current global market. When adding biogas and modern solid biomass, modern bioenergy consumption for clean cooking grows almost ten-fold from current levels, albeit from a low starting point.

Reaching universal clean cooking access requires USD 37 billion in total investment through to 2040, more than USD 2 billion per year. One quarter goes toward infrastructure such as primary fuel storage, bottling facilities and upgrading distribution networks, with the remainder covering household equipment such as cylinders and stoves.

Affordability remains a major constraint, nearly two thirds of sub-Saharan Africans would need to spend more than 10% of their income to adopt clean cooking solutions. Wider distribution networks can reduce costs, but encouraging supply chains to expand into underserved regions requires derisking operations and helping consumers to make payments. Effective measures could include adjusting taxes and import tariffs, and introducing targeted affordability mechanisms such as subsidies, carbon credits and results-based finance to offer clean cooking solutions at lower costs to consumers. New business models that allow consumers to pay as they go or purchase fuels in smaller quantities have helped close the gap in many affordability-constrained communities in recent years.

Scaling up clean cooking depends on improving access to finance, at lower cost. In the ACCESS, the share of debt financing in the clean cooking sector increases from 35% today to more than 50%, as companies successfully leverage future revenue to finance infrastructure and distribution networks. This requires banks to gain experience and confidence in assessing clean cooking businesses and properly pricing risks. Access to equity is a particular hindrance for smaller distributors, who historically play the largest role in expanding distribution networks into areas financially unattractive for larger commercial players. Concessional finance can help attract more commercial lending to the sector at lower costs of capital. Concessional finance flows to sub-Saharan Africa’s clean cooking sector have risen to new highs recently, reaching USD 155 million in 2023.

Clean cooking access delivers far-reaching improvements across health, development, and environment. By 2040, the cumulative premature deaths averted in sub-Saharan Africa by pursuing the ACCESS pathway instead of today’s trajectory reaches 4.7 million. The average household halves the amount of time they spend gathering fuels, making and tending to fires and cooking each day. In aggregate, these time-savings are equivalent to the total annual working hours of Brazil each year. Widespread deforestation, through the felling of trees for firewood and charcoal, is reduced, saving forest area roughly the size of Ecuador by 2040. 

Sub-Saharan Africa stands to benefit from the development of local clean cooking supply chains, the extent of which depends on creating a sustainable local market environment. Sub-Saharan Africa already has a foothold in several manufacturing segments of clean cooking value chains that could support a broader scaling up of manufacturing capacity. There are at least 74 facilities operating today in sub-Saharan Africa which manufacture clean cooking equipment and fuels, with an additional 16 facilities in the pipeline. Locally produced equipment and fuels help reduce import burdens and are often lower cost. Developing local supply chains for clean cooking should go hand-in-hand with implementing and enforcing globally accepted safety and performance standards to maintain consumer confidence.

New jobs in the clean cooking value chain require vocational training and transition support policies. In the ACCESS, sub-Saharan Africa requires more than 460 000 permanent new workers in the clean cooking sector by 2040 – comparable to the number of electric utility workers in sub-Saharan Africa today. Most of these jobs are connected to the distribution of clean cooking equipment and fuels, the manufacture of stoves and fuels, and operation and maintenance. Providing sufficient training is crucial to operational safety, especially in transporting and handling flammable fuels. Most roles require fewer than four weeks of training, with industry playing a large role in vocational education for the sector today. The switch to cleaner cooking solutions displaces a large network of fuelwood and charcoal distribution workers, however these vendors could, with the right transition support, play a role in emerging clean cooking distribution networks.  

Reaching universal clean cooking access also lowers emissions. The switch to clean cooking solutions, notably LPG and electric cooking, drives up emissions in the ACCESS by 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (Mt CO₂-eq) in 2040. However, it also reduces greenhouse gases emitted during the incomplete burning of fuelwood and charcoal in basic stoves by 280 Mt CO₂-eq and curbs deforestation, saving 330 Mt of CO₂-eq. In aggregate, the ACCESS reduces net annual greenhouse emissions by around 540 Mt CO₂-eq in 2040 against a baseline in which no action is taken.

Managing import exposure remains an energy security and fiscal concern for many African governments. Today, half of LPG and a fifth of bioethanol consumed in sub-Saharan Africa is imported. Production of LPG from natural gas processing and crude oil refining is set to rise slightly to 2030 in the region, and bioethanol production capacity is expanding from the 25 facilities active today. Global markets for both fuels have sufficient buffering capacity to absorb demand increases in the near-term. Building local storage and taking measures to diversify suppliers and the mix of cooking fuels can also help manage price shocks and supply disruptions. In parallel, governments are looking to better utilise domestic resources for cooking, including electricity and agricultural waste. Today, at least 20 biomass pellet facilities are operating or under development in the region and biogas projects operate in 17 countries.

Achieving full access in Africa to clean cooking by 2040 will require efforts across governments, industry, civil society, and the international community. Keeping this issue high on the regional and international agenda helps sustain momentum. In 2024, clean cooking was featured in both Italy’s G7 and Brazil’s G20 Leaders’ statements, – a first – and South Africa’s G20 is making clean cooking a priority. All stakeholders have a role to play in advancing practical solutions, mobilising investment, and implementing policies that deliver lasting impact. The IEA has led efforts on clean cooking since the early 2000s and will continue to monitor progress, including tracking policies, financing, and on-the-ground outcomes – to ensure clean cooking becomes a reality for all.