Delegates meeting this week in Gauteng, South Africa, for the G20 Social Summit and G20 Leaders' Summit are placing renewed attention on Africa's development, with energy access and clean cooking emerging as central issues on the agenda.
The summits come after Energy Ministers, meeting under South Africa's G20 Presidency in Durban in October, endorsed the Clean Cooking Roadmap and the Voluntary Infrastructure Investment Action Plan, marking a major milestone in global efforts to close the clean cooking access gap.
The action plan was informed by a detailed Clean Cooking Infrastructure Investment Action Plan, which was co-developed by the IEA, South Africa's Department of Electricity and Energy (DEE), and South Africa's Energy and Water Sector Education Training Authority - with input from African governments, industry, and other international organisations.
Drawing on the IEA's longstanding leadership on clean cooking analysis and policy support, it offers practical solutions that actors can take to mobilise additional finance, improve existing clean cooking policies and enhance local capability. Addressing these areas will help expand access to affordable and modern cooking fuels across sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly one billion people still lack clean cooking options.
"Ensuring that every household can cook their daily meals using fuels that are affordable and not a risk to human health is one of the defining energy challenges of our time," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. "The IEA is proud to have supported South Africa's G20 Presidency in shaping an action plan that links investment, policy and industry engagement to deliver real results for families across Africa by improving health, empowering women and supporting economic development."
The action plan underscores South Africa's commitment to making clean cooking a defining legacy of its G20 Presidency and aligns closely with the African Union's Agenda 2063. Ahead of the G20 Durban Ministerial in October, the government unveiled the Clean Cooking Legacy Programme, aimed at expanding access in schools, households and communities.
South Africa's Minister of Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa highlighted recent progress under the initiative, including new LPG installations at five schools in Mpumalanga province. "Clean cooking is not just an energy issue but a human rights issue. The G20 issued a historic agreement, 'Closing the Clean Cooking Gap', which I see as the key legacy of South Africa's G20 Energy Transitions Working Group," the Minister said. "This outcome builds on our Presidency document, 'Clean Cooking Infrastructure Investment Action Plan", developed by the International Energy Agency and South Africa's Energy & Water Sector Education Training Authority."
"The report outlines the most important concrete actions that all partners can take to advance clean cooking, drawing on input from industry experts, intergovernmental organisations, and other countries," the Minister added. "The legacy of South Africa's Presidency is to elevate clean cooking onto the mainstream agenda of the G20 - the most industrialised and powerful countries in the world - and to turn words into action. We will also be exploring ways to advance this as a pan-African agenda, driving priority actions through the African Union."
The IEA and the South African G20 Presidency reaffirmed their commitment to tracking progress on the key actions outlined in the action plan and to maintaining clean cooking as a priority on the global energy agenda. This effort builds on the IEA's ongoing work to monitor policy and drive real-world investment developments in the sector, including follow-up on the disbursement of the $2.2 billion in financial pledges made at the landmark Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, held by the IEA and partners in Paris in May 2024. The IEA looks forward to supporting the implementation of the action plan in the coming months with international and African partners.
