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14 May 2024

IAE 2024: The Role of Clean Cooking Investments in Africa’s Growth Story

IAE 2024: The Role of Clean Cooking Investments in Africa’s Growth Story
During an in-conversation discussion during this year’s Invest in African Energy (IAE) 2024 forum in Paris on May 15, Partner and Co-Investment Director at Spark+ Africa Fund Peter George and Senior Research Analyst at Energy Intelligence Amena Bakr explored how investments in innovative technologies for clean cooking on the African continent are poised to transform communities across the continent.

“From a market opportunity standpoint, $20-40 billion a year is spent in African markets on cooking fuel, which is a huge market for the LPG industry, for electrification to enable the uptake of electric cooking stoves and for household biogas that can also generate fertilizer that can increase crop yields for farmers,” George stated, adding, “All these different ways can both address this energy access gap and present many market opportunities.”

It was noted during the exclusive one-on-one conversation that clean cooking is poised to save at least 200 million hectares of forests globally by 2030. Clean cooking will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.9 gigatons of CO emissions equivalent per year, roughly equal to all emissions from airplanes and ships today.

“Clean cooking is thought to touch on 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” George said, stating, “If you look at the cost from the standpoint of deforestation, carbon emissions, lost productivity, as well as health impacts, there are all sorts of quantifiable costs to people lacking access to modern infrastructure. This annual cost is something like $2.4 trillion globally and over $300 billion in Africa.”

According to George, by leveraging concessional investment from the public sector with private capital from more commercially oriented investors who seek higher-return profiles in Africa’s developing market, Spark+ is able to finance a range of local and international companies engaged in clean cooking.

“Affordability is key, especially when it comes to Africa,” stated Bakr.

A partnership between the African Refiners and Distributors Association and the Global LPG Partnership to mobilize $1 billion in funding for clean energy solutions was announced during the IAE 2024 summit’s first day. The aim of the fund will be to make the funds available to promote a sustainable transition to cleaner fuels for cooking.

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