The Missing Link in Electrification: Clean Cooking
The global electrification push is accelerating, but without clean cooking, it will fall short. Last week’s Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit marked a turning point—clean cooking was included in all 12 energy compacts submitted by African governments, signaling a shift toward holistic, inclusive electrification strategies. However, ambition alone isn’t enough. Success depends on enabling policies, regulatory frameworks, and sustained investment. Without these, millions will remain dependent on polluting fuels — undermining health, climate, and development goals. Clean cooking must be prioritized in energy planning and investment from the outset.
Why Clean Cooking Must Be Part of Energy Access Planning
Despite progress in expanding electricity access, cooking energy demand has been neglected in infrastructure investments and policy frameworks. As a result, 2.1 billion people worldwide still depend on biomass, charcoal, and other polluting fuels. To truly achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), cooking must be central to energy planning.
CCA’s Role in Enabling E-Cooking Transitions
The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) is working with governments and key stakeholders to integrate clean cooking into energy access planning. Through data-driven tools, strategic partnerships, and targeted investments, CCA is enabling markets to scale electric cooking (e-cooking) solutions.
In Nepal, CCA continues to support the government’s goal of universal access to clean cooking by 2030 with 25% of households adopting e-cooking solutions. With nearly 100% of Nepal’s electricity generated by hydropower, e-cooking is a natural fit for Nepal’s renewable energy transition.
During its decade-long partnership with the Government of Nepal, CCA has supported national energy plans, such as the Country Action Plan for Transforming the Cookstoves and Fuels Market (a collaboration with Nepal’s Alternative Energy Promotion Centre) and helped develop Nepal’s standards for electric cooking including its first national standard for induction cooking and hot plates. In 2024, CCA launched a program to develop and promote a sustainable market for electric cookstoves in Madesh Province, aligned with government efforts to expand and modernize power transmission and distribution systems in the region, utilizing carbon finance to enhance affordability for consumers.
Reliable data is key to informed policymaking and infrastructure investment. To support this, in 2021, CCA developed the Clean Cooking Explorer (CCE) the first open-source, interactive geospatial platform for clean cooking. In 2024, CCA merged the CCE with WRI’s Energy Access Explorer (EAE), enabling better mapping of electricity expansion and its effect on consumer demand in Nepal and beyond.
Private Sector Innovation
Private sector advancements are making e-cooking solutions more efficient, affordable, and accessible. Research from CCA’s User Insights Lab (UIL) explores how enterprises are developing next-generation electric cookstoves tailored to consumer needs, increasing adoption rates:
- In Kenya, the UIL is researching the characteristics of early e-cooking adopters and challenges they face. These insights are also informing the development of a global AI-powered User Insights Hub that will enable companies and policymakers to utilize customer insights to design better clean cooking solutions.
- In Tanzania, the UIL partnered with Burn to pilot their electric pressure cooker and electric induction stove with 365 households.
- In Cambodia and Bangladesh, CCA’s Venture Catalyst Program teamed up with ATEC to support their PAYGO-enabled electric stove. The UIL team also helped ATEC develop a quick reference guide to improve consumers’ user experience.
Unlocking Carbon Finance for E-Cooking
Affordability remains a key barrier to widespread e-cooking adoption. Carbon finance is essential in bridging this gap, helping companies scale up while ensuring financial sustainability.
The quickly evolving clean cooking carbon market has struggled with consistency and credibility. That’s why CCA has led the development of the Principles for Responsible Carbon Finance in Clean Cooking and the CLEAR (Comprehensive Lowered Emissions Assessment and Reporting) Methodology for Cooking Energy Transitions, the first and only framework covering all common cooking transition scenarios developed as a public good. CLEAR is setting higher standards for transparency, credibility, and impact measurement, boosting investor confidence and facilitating effective funding allocation. This is crucial for unlocking large-scale financing and making e-cooking more accessible and affordable.
The Road to COP30: A Call for Action
The commitments made through Mission 300 are setting the stage for Africa’s energy transformation, illustrating that clean cooking is no longer an afterthought—it’s a central pillar of energy access and electrification efforts. But funding commitments and inclusion in national energy compacts is just the first step. As we look ahead to COP30, the momentum must translate into action, investment, and policy reforms that drive real change on the ground.
The path forward is clear:
✅ Governments must implement enabling policies and approve regulations that unlock carbon finance for clean cooking.
✅ Financial institutions and investors must expand credit pathways to lower costs and scale solutions.
✅ Policymakers must embed e-cooking into energy access frameworks while ensuring a full range of clean cooking solutions—including improved biomass, LPG, biogas, and ethanol—are available as infrastructure and markets evolve.
Clean cooking is the missing link in the global energy transition. It’s time to close the gap. With the right policies, financing, and commitment, we can finally ensure that no one is left behind in the transition to clean, modern energy.
