Half of almost a billion people have no clean cooking access in Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda.
This was stated in the July 2023 Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All report that was written in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group.
Population growth has stifled attempts at increasing access
According to the report, in sub-Saharan Africa, 29 countries have access rates below 20%, with half of the almost 1 billion people without clean cooking access concentrated in the highlighted countries. It also stated that in the sub-Saharan African region, population growth has outpaced progress.
A part of the report stated: “Despite access rates climbing from 8% to above 15% from 2010 to 2022, the number of people without clean cooking solutions in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 220 million. Over this period, sub-Saharan Africa provided clean cooking access to about 0.5% of its population each year.
“Some notable success stories can be found in Africa, including South Africa, and recently Nigeria and Kenya, who both implemented new clean cooking (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) strategies in 2015-2021 and since 2010 have brought clean cooking to around 1% of their population each year accelerating to 1.5% since 2015.”
Depressing statistics
According to the IEA and AfDB report, Africa will end the decade with the same number of people without clean cooking access as of today. The report pointed out that under current policy and investment environments, many African countries are not expected to reach full clean cooking access even into the 2050s!
Also, the report highlighted the fact that as of today, 2.3 billion people rely on charcoal, firewood, coal, agricultural waste and animal dung as fuel to prepare meals, causing them to breathe in harmful smoke in the process. Meanwhile, the air pollution from these rudimentary cooking methods causes 3.7 million premature deaths per year, ranking it the third largest cause of premature death globally.
The report stated further that women suffer the worst impacts from the lack of clean cooking.
Also, the report projects that the number of people without access to clean cooking in Africa in 2030 remains roughly around the current level of 980 million.
Going from $2.5 billion to $8 billion
The report said that investments in clean cooking stoves, equipment, and infrastructure by 2030 would need to reach $8 billion annually. This represents a substantial increase in the $2.5 billion currently invested each year. According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about half of the total investment requirement this decade.
The LPG context in sub-Saharan Africa
The IEA and AfDB report does admit that LPG as a cooking fuel in Africa has gained some ground in countries like Kenya, and Nigeria. However, a lack of natural gas storage and distribution systems in many urban areas in Africa, makes LPG a lower-cost solution than building new pipelines.
A part of the report stated: “In regions without heating demand, the economic case for natural gas pipeline expansion remains limited. Even in sub-Saharan African countries developing new natural gas production, gas is often prioritised for power generation and industrial production.”
