"Governments, firms pledge $2.2 billion for African clean cooking"

" Governments, firms pledge $2.2 billion for African clean cooking \r\n\r\nGovernments, multilateral lenders and oil and gas companies at a key Paris conference pledged $2.2 billion in financing to promote clean cooking in Africa and end a scourge that causes fatal respiratory disease, adds to carbon emissions and leads to deforestation.\r\n\r\nAcross Africa, more than 900 million people \u2014 or about three-quarters of the population \u2014 rely on open fires and basic stoves that burn charcoal and wood to cook meals. That practice leads to the premature death of about 600,000 people, mainly women and children, a year.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis summit has delivered an emphatic commitment to an issue that has been ignored by too many people, for too long,\u201d International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement released at the conference convened by the IEA on Tuesday.\r\n\r\nPledges came from the African Development Bank, the European Union and Vitol SA among others.\r\n\r\nThe IEA estimates that Africa needs $4 billion in annual investments to end the use of inefficient wood and charcoal fires and stoves by 2030, with Birol suggesting in an earlier interview that the sale of carbon credits could go some way to meeting that goal.\r\n\r\nAchieving the target would cut annual emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide or its equivalent by 800 million tons annually, more than the amount emitted by South Africa, the world\u2019s 15th-biggest source of greenhouse gases.\r\n\r\n\u201cSpeed and scale is what is needed to resolve the charcoal epidemic in Africa,\u201d said Greg Murray, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Koko Networks, which sells stoves that use renewable ethanol in Kenya and Rwanda.\r\n\r\nWhile there has been some improvement in the use of clean-cooking technology in Asian countries, progress in Africa has lagged behind. The World Bank estimates the cost of inaction in sub-Saharan Africa at $330 billion annually because of the impact on health and the climate.\r\n\r\nSeparately, the World Liquid Gas Association said Equinor ASA and TotalEnergies SE will be part of a task force that will promote access to liquefied petroleum gas for cooking in Africa and will present a plan to the COP29 international climate summit later this year.\r\n\r\nPetredec Ltd., Oryx Energies SA and S&P Global Inc. will also form part of the task force."

"Governments, firms pledge $2.2 billion for African clean cooking"

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