- Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was advanced as the main solution, with scarce mention of e-cooking
- Carbon markets and credits were also frequently mentioned as a key financial avenue to solving the crisis
Civil society organisations have faulted the just concluded clean energy summit for failing to provide tangible solutions.
The Clean Cooking Summit in Paris, France, was to track and advocate for access to clean cooking energy.
The activists say the summit, which ended on Tuesday, did not address challenges facing Africa.
They said deliberations were influenced by external interests, mostly fossil fuel and carbon credit companies.
In Africa, nearly four in five people still cook their meals over open fires and traditional stoves.
The stoves use wood, charcoal, animal dung and other polluting fuels.
These methods have dire impacts on health, gender equality and the environment, with women and children bearing the worst consequences.
During the summit, a total of $2.2 billion (Sh287 million) in public and private sector funding, financing and investment was made for clean cooking.
Liquefied Petroleum gas was advanced as the main solution, with scarce mention of e-cooking.
Carbon markets and credits were also frequently mentioned as a key financial avenue to solving the crisis.
Total Energies pledged $400 million (52.4 billion) to the development of LPG.
The summit was attended by delegates from governments, the private sector, development partners and international organisations, who agreed to make 2024 a pivotal year for achieving universal access to clean cooking.
It was co-chaired by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Africa Development Bank Group president Akinwumi Adesina, and International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol.
Civil society organisations said clean cooking crisis disproportionately affects women and girls.
However, the list of high-level participants showed that women made up only 26 per cent of the attendees.
Only 38 per cent of the attendees were from Africa, with just 14 African women included in the list of 84 participants (17 per cent).
African CSOs warned that rush by wealthy corporations to buy carbon credits from poor African countries is a ploy by the companies to continue polluting the world to Africa’s detriment
IEA says $4 billion (Sh524 billion) in investments will be needed annually by 2030 to provide households in Africa with clean cooking.
Power Shift Africa director Mohammed Adow said the resolutions reached during the summit were created by a bunch of rich men from the global north.
“There is no mention of the absolute poverty and disempowerment of the women who are currently forced to use dirty fuels for cooking,” Adow said.
Developing a sustainable local economy with clean cooking technology was also not mentioned.
“What we need is a woman-centred approach that puts their needs first, not those of a greedy private sector looking to make profit. There is a growing argument that most of the women who could afford and access gas for cooking could also afford and access electric cooking, which can be powered by renewable energy. That should be the focus,” Adow said.
Christian Aid Senior Advocacy Advisor Joab Okanda said it is not a coincidence that the summit is being held in France.
“We must ask ourselves, whose agenda was the summit driving? Was this really a summit for Africa or a summit to continue extracting from Africa?” he asked.
Power Shift Africa senior adviser Fadhel Kaboub said the EU and the IEA last year announced a clean cooking plan for Africa, without consulting the African Union or African governments.
“There is no reason to have a clean cooking summit that does not include industrialisation, industrial policy and unlocking Africa’s development potential," he said.
"Carbon markets allow polluters in the Global North to continue polluting for little money—financial crumbs. Carbon markets are a dangerous distraction and a false solution.”
CAN International coordinator Janet Milongo said representation during the summit was skewed in favour of oil and gas lobbyists.
She said it was biased towards the continuation of the colonial, patriarchal representation of the continent.
“Women, who are the most affected by the climate crisis, had the least space at the summit to speak about their realities."
World Resources Institute deputy director Rebekah Shirley said in order to establish truly lasting and sustainable solutions, women who represent rural and peri-urban communities across the continent must be firmly and squarely established at the helm of the discussions.