Schlettwein in France for ‘clean cooking’ summit

The minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Calle Schlettwein, on Tuesday participated in a ‘clean cooking’ summit, which is currently taking place in France.

The theme is ‘Catalysing Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships’.

The summit, taking place at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in Paris, aims to make Africa a better place by mitigating the impacts of a lack of access to clean cooking, which has dire consequences for health, climate, and gender equality.

This in turn contributes to nearly half a million premature deaths of women and children in Africa annually.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an estimated US$4 billion of capital investment would be required annually to achieve clean cooking access for all Africans by 2030.

The IEA says nearly four in five Africans still cook their meals over open fires and traditional stoves, using wood, charcoal, animal dung, and other polluting fuels, causing health risks.

“The IEA co-hosts the summit, maintaining that the world is falling behind on its goal to deliver affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

“The summit invited global leaders to join the call to make 2024 the pivotal year for addressing the lack of clean cooking in Africa.

“The summit builds on existing initiatives, including Tanzania’s Africa Women Clean Cooking Support Programme launched at COP28 to provide access to clean cooking for women,” Schlettwein said on Tuesday.

He said the aim of the summit is to elevate clean cooking on the global agenda and mobilise a broader coalition of support for this critical issue.

“Mobilise financial commitments for clean cooking from governments, development agencies, development banks, climate funds, the private sector, philanthropies, and non-governmental organisations.

“Develop a roadmap of concrete, action-oriented strategies around financing, carbon markets, policies, and partnerships that will help better mobilise additional support to scale successful clean cooking efforts,” he said.

Some of the delegates attending the summit are president of Tanzania Samia Hassan, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, executive director of the IEA Fatih Birol, and the president of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, who is co-chairing the summit.