High-Level Event on Clean Cooking

Excellencies, dear colleagues, it's a great pleasure to welcome you all here at the United Nations to discuss in my view one of the most important issues that the humanity is facing today which is uh the access to clean cooking. May I thank first of all uh my co-host President R. Thank you very much Mr. President for all your support and efforts here. So much appreciated and also uh the Norwegian government represented here with the minister of inter international development her excellency Okust. I recently talked with the prime minister story. He cannot be with us here but his heart is here. Dear colleagues, I am also proud that for the first time in the ANGA meeting, this issue has a dedicated event. I am very happy and I am very proud of it and I look forward to continuing this partnership with President R, Prime Minister Story and with the US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright together with African Union African Development Bank for the second clean cooking summit in Africa in Nairobi 27th. and 28th of January. Dear colleagues, at the IA we started to work on clean cooking some 25 years ago. 25 years ago, we were the first ones who look at the numbers. How many people have no access to clean cooking in Africa but also in the other part of the world? And we have this we follow this every year in our flagship publication world energy outlook and track the developments year by year. what happens in which country whether or not this issue has been uh addressed and in the year 2024 two years ago we have the first summit Kukin summit in Paris >> and this was a big success but I am sure the second one in Nairobi will be even a bigger success under your leadership Mr. President So dear colleagues, why have we worked on this issue as I 25 years ago? Because in my view, as I said, it is one of the biggest tragedies of humankind. As we speak today, this year some 850,000 people die prematurely because of not having access to clean cooking using traditional uh fuels such as wood, agricultural waste, animal waste, which in turn creates a major respiratory diseases >> 850,000 people. And to solve this issue according to IIA's analysis requires only I would say only two billion dollars per year which is compared to many other expand expenditures we have in the world and compared to what we will get in return this is nothing2 billion dollars and this can be done to address this issue we do not need to discover new technologies have findings. Many of the existing solutions are ready to address this issue and the main thing here comes as LPG which is readily available around the world but also electric cooking and uh others. when we hold the first uh meeting in Paris there, thanks to the great work that our colleagues at the IE have done one year, we raised$2.2 billion US of pledges. >> It's a big money, 2.2 billion. and President Macron invited us to Elise to all the heads of states and and us to congratulate us in El there and both in Elise but also in front of the more than 1,000 people in Paris participants. I said I promise that we are going to say what happened to this money. We are going to track this uh money and we still we do it and our tracking shows that up to now of this 2.2 billion 740 million has been dispersed across 28 African countries and they fund real projects. For example, I see LPG terminals and electric cooking in Kenya, new stove factories in Nigeria, fuel storage and uh stop equipment in Tanzania and stove deployment in Sineagal. And here uh we are of course all of us are looking forward to Nairobi and we are already working with our colleagues from uh Kenya and others and collecting pledges. I can tell you that as of today, Mr. President, we have already put together 900 million >> already has been pledged from different governments, institutions, companies and uh and others. So these are our activities and I'm very happy that in the meantime an organization which uh focus on the on the ground to make the things happen clean cooking alliance found a new home at the international energy agency under our umbrella and furthermore uh in January before going to Nairobi in Davos in World Economic Forum some of you know that I am the chair of the Davos energy board. I am going to bring this issue to Davos World economic forum as a key humanitarian issue. So today dear colleagues we have an incredible uh good participation from different parts of uh the the globe and we hope that we can discuss what we expect from January summit in Nairobi under the able leadership of Mr. uh president and I can assure you that dear colleagues we look at the numbers we look at the technologies we look at the challenge this can be solvable easily no big money no new technology it needs political will and as such I think our meeting in Nairobi will be very important so thank you very much for your attention and now I am passing the floor to uh Mr. visit over to you sir. Thank you your excellencies. Colleagues, welcome to this very important meeting. Historic as was said by my colleague here, the first high level event on clean cooking in Africa to be held during the United Nations General Assembly. Today's gathering reflects the momentum we set in motion when we met virtually in July this year. At that meeting, we welcomed nearly 900 million US dollars in new financial commitments, marked the association of clean cooking alliance with the international energy agency and agreed to sustain the political momentum behind this agenda. Today, we carry that commitment forward from momentum to action and from ambition to delivery. We are especially grateful to the Kingdom of Norway for its steadfast partnership and for co-hosting this event. We also commend the International Energy Agency and particularly my good friend Dr. Bol who has become a tireless champion and a driving force for this agenda. Kenya is proud to be part of this coalition. For millions of African households, cooking is the single largest use of energy across much of our continent. The kitchen is where the energy transition enters daily lives for nearly 1 billion people. Three in four people in Sapraan and Africa still lack access to clean cooking. In Kenya alone, households air pollution contributes to premature deaths every year, disproportionately affecting women and children. And across Africa, the annual toll exceed 500,000 lives. But the consequences go beyond health. Reliance on polluting cooking fuels drives deforestation, increases greenhouse gas emissions, consumes time that could otherwise be spent on education and economic activity and constrains opportunity. After decades of advocacy and action, the world now accepts that cooking with wood and charcoal can kill. that collecting and using these fuels costs women and girls precious hours every day and that this is an injustice we have the means to end. That case was made by women made by health ministers, scientists, advocates and many of you in this room. That case in my estimation has now be won today. I want to make the argument we have yet to win. Clean cooking is energy infrastructure. It belongs in the plans of every ministry and institution that shapes how our economies grow. And the challenge does not end at the household poor. It will not be solved while our schools, hospitals, correctional facilities and other public institutions remain heavily dependent on polluting fuels. Let me make three points about how we deliver this transition. First, there will be no single pathway. Different countries will move at different speeds and through different technologies reflecting their resources, markets, infrastructure and consumer needs. Our task is to accelerate the deployment of all viable technologies towards cooking that is cleaner, affordable, reliable and accessible. Second, clean cooking must become part of the electrification agenda. Electric cooking can turn a basic electricity connection into meaningful and productive demand. It can strengthen utility revenues, improve the economics of investment in generation and networks and ensure that electrification delivers greater value to households. The COP 23 president Murat Kurum who I am told is here with us today and I hope he's somewhere in the room has proposed increasing electricity's share of global final energy consumption to 35% by 2035. We should arrive at COP 31 with clean cooking family embedded in that electrification and efficiency agenda and we should use our accelerated partnership for renewables in Africa as a vehicle for rapid delivery. Third, the investment acquired is small in relation to the opportunity as was said a by Dr. Bol here. Consider the arithmetic. According to IEA, achieving universal clean cooking access in Africa requires approximately $2 billion annually through 2040. Consider the the the other statistics. The world invests more than $3 billion in energy every year. In other words, Africa's cooking transition would require less than oneth of 1% of annual global energy investment. I said one10enth of 1%. That is why in the words of Bol it's it's very small compared to the other numbers. The constraint is not simply the availability of capital. Capital is held back because demand is fragmented and too much risk is left with households and small enterprises. Institutional aggregation, local currency financing, guarantees and result pays funding can help correct that imbalance and turn need into investment demand. And the return over the next 15 years are extraordinary. I'll give you the numbers. 4.7 million premature deaths avoided. 540 million tons of emissions reduced annually by 2040 and 460,000 permanent jobs created. Those jobs matter as much as the fuel. Every clean cooking transition creates a value chain. fuel production and distribution, appliance manufacturing and assembly, installation and maintenance, retail and consumer finance. More of that value must be created in where the need is most in Africa. That is why we must bring clean cooking value chains into the project preparation pipeline of the Africa green industrialization initiative so that this transition also becomes an engine of African industrialization and job creation. But we must be candid about the other side of this transition. Millions of people today depend on charcoal and firewood for their livelihoods. A transition that ignores them will not endure. Restraining alternative livelihoods, retraining alternative livelihoods and are managed face down must therefore be part of the plan just as they are in any serious industrial transition. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Kenya, like other countries, is pursuing a pragmatic multifuel approach that reflects market realities and consumer preferences. To translate that ambition into investment, we recently launched the institutional cooking clean cooking investment park. It identifies a 600 million investment, US dollar investment opportunity across schools, healthcare facilities and correctional services. We all need to continue building that momentum, strengthening partnerships, mobilizing investment, and moving from commitment to implementation. On 27th and 28th January next year, we will co-host the second Africa clean cooking summit with Norway, the United States, the international a energy agency and other partners. I invite you all to Nairobi. When we meet in Nairobi, let each one of us come prepared to point to one concrete step. a policy approved, a procurement launched, financing deployed, an investment committed, or a project advanced. I thank you. >> Thank you very much, Mr. President. Your leadership is so important in this issue. is we both said it's one of the biggest injustices in the world today we are facing. May I now turn to uh to Norway the minister of international development minister Okus Mr. Minister the Mr. President mentioned the health impacts and I know that the the your prime minister interest in clinical start when he worked with the world WH so it is great to see you here representing your government sir over to you >> thank you presidents excellencies distinguished guests and colleagues and also let me start by sending the greetings from my prime minister Yunas Gar who is deeply committed to this initiative uh and I'm so glad to be here um and to really feel the energy in this totally packed room which is so much needed because we have already heard the urgency of what we are discussing. Clean cooking is probably one of the most underfunded opportunities in global development and climate policy today. It's an opportunity to improve health, to empower women, to create jobs, and to protect nature. I would like to use this opportunity from Norway, but I think from all of us to really thank President Ru and his leadership and commitment and the United States and the International Energy Agency for working closely together with us from the Norwegian government in preparing the second summit on clean cooking in Africa. Two years ago when we met in Paris, we have since then we have mobilized more than two billion dollars for clean cooking and we have seen great progress. New policy is adopted. New partnership is formed. Afford affordability is being overcome and in some African countries we have seen clean cooking access rise significantly. This is very encouraging and let's use this and as an inspiration to do more and to be more prepared when we meet in Nairobi in January. Let me underline three points. First, clean cooking must become a central pillar of national energy strategies. It's not an add-on. It's not a social programs on the margins. It has to be a development prior priority reflected in national plans, investment frameworks and public budgets. The transformation from modern energy cannot be complete while billions remain dependent on traditional cocking fuels. Second, women must be at the center of the solution. Women bear the greatest burden of energy poverty. Yet they are also among the strongest agents for change. When women gain access to clean cooking technologies, entire communities benefit when women entrepreneurs receive financing financing and support. Markets grow faster and progress become more sustainable. Investing in women is not only the right thing to do, it's also the smart thing to do. Furge, we must bring together climate finance, development finance, carbon finance, and private investments. We need financing at a scale designed to reduce risk, attract capital, and accelerate deployment. Therefore, I'm also very glad to see the president of the world bank Banga being among us today. Friends, national leadership must be matched by international partnership. We call upon we call upon multilateral institution to place clean cooking firmly within their energy portfolios on development partners to expand uh concessional finance on businesses and philanthropic uh foundations to invest in growing clean cooking markets. Since the summit in Paris, the Norwegian government has delivered almost 50 million US dollar to what what we promised on clean cooking in Africa which make Norway one of the leading bilateral supporters of clean cooking on the continent. From Norwegian government, we will say and once again here that we will continue to do our part. The transition to clean cooking is not largely about changing how meals are prepared. It's about improving lives and it's about ensuring that economic development and climate progress go hand in hand. Let us therefore act with greater urgency, greater ambition and greater greater partnership. No woman, man or child should have to risk their health simply because they are cooking a meal. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much uh Mr. Minister to you and your government and Prime Minister Story. May I now turn to uh Mr. Chris Tright, Secretary of Energy of United States. With many thanks to you, Mr. Secretary, for your great engagement on this issue. Over to you, please. >> Thank you. Thank you, Fati. Thank you for your great comments, Minister Alrust. Thank you, President R. I love the words they said and I agree with all of them. Look, the world has many problems, but very few of those problems can be quantified as causing deaths, annual deaths measured in the millions. That's very few problems. Those are generally public health problems. Clear water, endemic um and infectious diseases, things we have valiant efforts on and we should continue those. Those are fantastic. Um we have lesser problems that we spend a lot of effort on and we don't make much progress. What's unique about the clean cooking fuel problem is this is a giant problem. One quarter of humanity. We've heard the numbers about a billion in Africa about a billion out of Africa. One quarter of humanity have not gotten access to clean cooking fuels that changed the lives of all of our ancestors. This is a giant problem. And what else is unique about it? It's an eminently solvable problem. We know how to solve this problem. We have the technologies. We have the materials. It is a businessdriven problem. The room today is full of business leaders from the United States and from around the world. We are making progress. Tens of millions of people every year first gain access to clean cooking fuel. I say that's the biggest access in your road from dire poverty uh to wealth and prosperity. The biggest single step is gaining access to clean cooking fuels. We know how to do it. tens of millions of people every year. But why not a hundred million? Why not 200 million a year? 200 billion people still lack it. We can do it. We can do it. Clean cooking fuel is not just a public health problem. We talked about the enormous deaths from indoor air pollution. It's not just an energy access problem, but of course it is. The arrival of modern energy over the last 100 to 200 years has more than doubled human life expectancy. But think about that. A quarter of humanity don't have this basic energy service of clean cooking fuels. Beyond being a public health problem and being an energy problem, this is the biggest largest in numbers of people women's liberation problem left. One quarter of the women on planet Earth today spend hours a day in risky drudgery to locate fuels, to tend fires, to lean over them. Their children are with them in that they don't have the same life opportunities of everyone in this room. We together can liberate a billion women. We can save hundreds of thousands of lives every year. We can transform the living conditions of so much of humanity. It is in our hands. And the entrepreneurs in Africa, in South Asia, in Latin America's hands, they just need help and a nudge with us to drive this thing. Let's We have a lot of problems in the world. We can all focus on different ones. This is the most solvable giant problem. We should do it. We're not going to be judged and we're not going to save any lives by our words today. Although I am touched by your words, the people in this room, the variety of people in this room, the energy in this room makes me more optimistic than I've been in 40 years talking about this problem. But all that will save lives, all that will transform the condition for people on our planet is the actions we take from here. God bless you all for focusing on this issue. God bless you all for being in this room. I look forward to seeing hopefully all of you at the Clean Cooking Fuel Summit in Kenya. But we have a chance to do something awesome that we can be proud of on our deathbed. Let's do it. >> Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Secretary, you are hopeful after four years. I am very hopeful after 25 years. To be honest, >> I said 40 years. >> Okay. 40 years. This is years for me. >> So 25 years because for the first time we were able to have a clean cooking event in Anga. So this is the first time and I am very proud of it and I want to thank here the United Nations for opening this door to us and can I turn to Mrs. Amir Muhammad who is the deputy secretary general of United Nations. Over to you Mrs. Muhammad. >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much Dr. Broll. I hope this is working out. Uh thank you very much uh your excellency President Ruto excellencies it's wonderful to be here and to have um this room so full um in the UN um I'm just looking at my UN speech of 10 pages and then I am wondering how to respond to three men for whom this is a big woman's problem. Um to also hear 40 years and 25 years is probably an indictment of the international community or what is supposed to be a huge problem for women and a billion of them. Um so I'd like I'd like to just put this speech to one side and and just please ask you to take President R's speech because that has a every single um remedy to what we need to look at first that this is a women and children's issue. It is about health. It is about human dignity. First things first and we're talking about Africa today. Um five years to the SGS and we are considerably off track. So anyone talking about a goal that they want to attach this to, we need to put some acceleration before it becomes groundhog day. The third is that the energy transition this should be an outcome of the energy transition not another project that we stick on to this or money that we look for for an initiative. It's part and an outcome in a billion women's lives. And I speak passionately about this because 12 years ago in my country as the Minister of Environment, I came upon a internationally funded clean cooking program and we had a stadium full of clean cookers. None of them were good enough for the women of Africa. So I hope that when we're talking about this initiative, please let it be that national national plans, national solutions to this will be what we are funding and we are funding an energy transition with an outcome in it. And that brings me to the financing. We should not be financing projects. This is part of financing infrastructure. The scale at which this has to happen and impact women's lives means we need to be serious about how we're bringing finance to this. Whether it is our multilateral development banks that will help us with this and quite frankly the M300 goes a long way to doing that because it opens up that space. But let this not just be a clean cooking for women. This is an infrastructure issue. It is a design issue in a home. It's not just a kitchen. It's a home. It's families. And we should be looking at that infrastructure with water in the home that you turn the tap on every day before you come to work. And that a kitchen that you can go to and cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner without having to think about not just the fact that you've got a funny cooker there that's using gas, but a complete holistic solution to clean cooking for women. Uh last but not least, please let there not be another five or 10 years for this. It is possible to make a difference and let's do it in Nairobi. Thank you. >> Let's do it. >> Thank you very much, Madame Deputy Secretary General. May I now uh turn to the vice president of the Republic of uh Gambia, His Excellency Muhammad Jalof. Over to you, sir. Your Excellency President, excellencies, um, delegates, I thank President RO and Prime Minister Story for bringing us together around an issue that touches the daily lives of millions of African families. Clean cooking is often discussed as a question of energy access. It is, but it is it significant reaches much further. How families cook affects their health, household spending, pressure on our forests, and opportunities available to communities. Progress in clean cooking can therefore benefit many dimensions of development. Yet they also bring into sharper focus an urgent challenge that we cannot afford to overlook. In Africa, the challenge is urgent. Too many households continue to de to depend on traditional cooking methods because cleaner alternative remain beyond their reach. This is not a reflection of a lack of demand. It's a question of access, affordability, and the investment required to make cleaner options available at the scale our populations need. In the Gambia, only 1.6% of the population has access to clean fuel and cooking technologies and rural areas depend almost entirely on wood foil, exposing women to sever indoor air pollution and health risk. Excellencies, the government of the Gami is committed to expanding access to cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy as part of our broader development agenda. Our National Energy Compact sets a target to raise clean cooking access from 25 to 50% by 2030 supported by a gender responsive clean cooking strategy. Our nationally determined contribution also exclusively includes clean cooking measures. The NDC sets a conditional emission reduction target of more than 50% and aims to reduce household emissions from traditional fuels such as charcoal and wood and to promote access to cleaner, more efficient cooking solutions. Furthermore, the Gambia's climate prosperity investment and financing strategy, which is a nationally led unified framework to mobilize domestic and international investment for climate resilience, also includes clean cooking and renewable energy among its key investment pillars. As a country, we recognize that lasting progress must reflect household realities. A transition that people cannot afford will not endure. Solutions that do not respond to local circumstances will not reach the scale required. Our commitment therefore must be merged with appropriate resources to deliver. For less developed countries with limited fiscal space, a successful transition to clean cooking depends on access to sustainable tech suitable technologies, stronger national capacity and financing terms that make implementation possible. This prerequisite requires international partnership to ensure the required resources are within reach of countries determined to translate their national commitments into real change for their people. The transition must also be shaped by greater African ownership. Our countries should play a strong role in shaping solutions that might their energy realities, building the institutions and capabilities to sustain them, and ensuring that the benefits of clean energy contribute to Africa's wider development. Africa should not have to choose between meeting its people's basic energy needs and pursuing a cleaner and more sustainable future. With the right investment and partnership, both are available achievable. The Gambia stands ready to work with Kenya, Norway and the Clean Cooking Alliance and other partners to advance this agenda in a meaningful way. I thank you. >> Thank you very much uh Mr. uh vice president may I now uh go over to uh Mr. Ajay Banga the president of the word bank group. AJ over to you please. >> Thank you Fabi. Six things to say. The first one is it's not just a health problem or a societal problem about women and children and and the rest of it. It is an energy issue as well as a health and social issue. And I think we must keep that at the back of all of our thinking. The second point is mission 300 which is the work we're doing with the African Development Bank on trying to reach 300 million people with accessible affordable base load energy across Africa has clean cooking embedded in each country's energy plan. This is a country bycountry plan in which each country has clean cooking in N300. Third is that what Fati you said there's no new technology to be sought here. So whether it's electric or LPG or bio gas or ethanol or other technologies that depends on the country's local circumstances. We need to do it country by country but we don't need to reinvent the wheel here. That's the third point. Chris kind of said the same thing when he was speaking. Fourth, we've now learned that to mobilize private capital at scale. We've just I was telling Azun just now we mobilized 112 billion of private capital last year to invest with us in the emerging markets. The year I started the number was 31 billion. Today for every dollar of World Bank investing we mobilize a dollar of private capital. I have learned that four things matter. First governments have to create the policy environment but don't get in the way after that. Two businesses must invest and innovate and build the distribution. Third, people like us must provide the financing, but most importantly, reduce the risk. And fourth, we need philanthropic money to help test new approaches and stretch these scarce public resources together. That's the partnership we have to get together. In Rwanda, right now, 20 private companies have reached 2.2 million people with access to clean cooking. To Chris's point about unleashing entrepreneurship and investment, that's an example, Chris, in Rwanda. So that's my my sort of fourth point. And the fifth is about the fact that over the period of the last uh decade and a half, the World Bank has put 500 million into clean cooking. We think we're reaching 95 million people. That's great, but there's a lot more to be done. And so the sixth point which I was keeping for William RTO, but he left. So you can communicate to him is that we're working on an ambitious plan. And if he really wants an ambitious plan, January he's going to get it. And at that time, he's going to have to step up with all of us to count and push and push at everybody to not enable roadblocks to get in the way. He's going to get that plan, and we're coming in January with that plan. So, this is all lovely, but that's where we're going. >> Thank you very much, uh, AJ. Now may I now turn to African Union Commission and we have the commissioner for uh energy and infrastructure Mrs. Matabog please. >> Thank you very much. Is this on? Okay, >> it's on. Yes. >> Thank you very much. Uh and and let me recognize the head table. Um really for us to confirm that the African Union takes this agenda very seriously. our heads of states adopted clean cooking as a continental priority February 2025. We then um saw South Africa's G20 presidency endorsing a clean cooking infrastructure plan. Um and similarly last week in Houston under the leadership of Secretary Wright, the G20 continued to prioritize um clean cooking um with with the African Union in in the room. So, so it's it's really an important agenda item for us and uh in terms of our priorities as a continent, firstly we are of the view that one we need to respect national circumstances when it comes to clean cooking. Africa needs a range of affordable, reliable and safe cooking solutions and our approach should allow countries to select technologies that are appropriate to their resources, to their infrastructure and to their household needs. and financing decision should assess health outcomes, affordability and environmental performance without excluding viable solutions solely because of the energy sources from whence they come. So technology neutrality is is a key principle for us. Secondly, affordability must extend beyond the purchase of a stove. We must ask whether a household can afford the next cylinder refill or the next electricity payment. So national programs should address both the initial cost of equipment and the continuing cost of cooking. Um in our view targeted support for vulnerable households, affordable consumer finance and reliable distribution should be integral to those programs. So we should measure our success by sustained use and not once off transition into clean cooking. Third, we require investment in the entire delivery system. I think this point has been made and we really support the IEA's investment framework that estimates um what we require for universal access and we call on our on our partners. So happy to hear the World Bank uh is is putting all muscle behind this um and development finance institutions to expand concessional finance guarantees and project preparation support. Fourth, um the clean cooking investment should build Africa's productive capacity. We want African enterprises to manufacture the equipment to assemble appliances to distribute fuels and provide maintenance. Procurement and financing programs should create opportunities for local businesses particularly those led by women and led by young people. So our international partnerships should support technology transfer and skills development enabling African firms to participate throughout the value chain. Fifth, delivery in Africa must remain under African leadership. Through the African Union and the African Energy Commission, we seek stronger coordination around national priorities and our partners, international partners, uh we encourage to align their support with individual country investment plans and measurable result. Um we also propose regular report reporting on financing dispersed on household that have been reached and on affordability and continued use. This will help us to identify what works and to direct resources where progress is the slowest. As the African Union, we continue to stand ready to work with all of you, all of our partners and friends of Africa to translate this important political and economic commitment um into um universal access and uh provision of healthcare for our women and children. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much, Madame Commissioner. May I also thank the African Union for the great partnerships we have with the IA and the African Union on this issue. May I now turn to uh to Alexander Decru who is administrator of the UNB and wishing you all the best with your new job. Alexander, over to you, please. >> Well, thank you. I've been in the job for nine months now, so I at least survived that part. Um look on on and we we've heard many of the arguments why this is uh why this is so important but I would would want to focus on um on on one and then talk about how do you get this going um on emissions. We underestimate the emissions coming from traditional cooking. The emissions from traditional cooking alone is as much as the whole aviation industry worldwide. So this is a massive impact on uh on on emissions. And the secondary impact especially on climate change is deforestation because finding the fuel for traditional cooking is leading to an acceleration in in deforestation with all the climate impacts that it that it uh that it has. Um if we want to uh to to solve this the barrier today indeed is not technology. I mean all of that exists. The barrier today is to make the link towards bankable projects. This these projects make economal economically total total sense uh to do it. But to get it going you need to get the financing going and in many places that financing is not flowing. That financing is not flowing because the perception of risk is very often very high. I emphasize the perception of risk because in many places the reality is one that actually it is perfectly feasible to to do that. Now correcting that that is typically something where an organization such as UNDP can uh can come in. It's working with governments in creating the right right circumstances where these investments can take place. Very often that's rule of law reforms. That's making sure that you have financial systems that you have all types of the the boundary variables to make sure that you have an environment where those investments can take place and we've seen that in many places in Africa that today is uh is happening. Second element is is that um there is indeed not one solution for this and and and key to getting clean energy everywhere on the African continent is decentralized energy and and and decentralized energy can be done in many different ways. But obviously today renewable energy offers the best the best potential for for doing that uh because it it detaches you from the volatility of fossil fuel that we see uh today and very often it's a very low level of risk compared to the the other energy systems that you um uh that you need. So um we really think that this is one of the easiest way of reducing emissions throughout uh throughout the world and in bringing all the other benefits that have that have happened but please it is technology it is financing but if you want to get it at scale it is also system policy reforms in the end this is also work of bureaucrarat sitting in cubicles and doing doing the not so sexy work if I can call it that that way but that is part of getting it at scale and of achieving um the objective that you have put forward. Thank you. >> Thank you very much Alexander. When you say emissions, let me tell you one result of our analysis here because when we said how we can bring uh the clean cooking to the in Africa and beyond our numbers show that the looking at the countries uh countries choices and the economics of it big chunk of it comes from uh the LPG followed by in some countries the electric cooking in some countries the bio energy and others and some colleagues said this LPG is not a problem for the uh for the emissions uh for the uh growing emissions and it will add to the increasing emissions. Then what we have is that we have calculated and I asked my colleagues Lara and others. You were right. The amount of the uh the sink we lose from deforestation by cutting the wood is much more than even everybody not the big chunk everybody would use LPG. So you are better off to use LPG. I know people will have different choices but extreme thing if 100% was LPG you are better off in terms of emissions compared to uh compared to not doing anything. So therefore uh the numbers show that the using losing this sink from the frustration is a big problem compared to the emissions that may come from the the use of LPG for clean cooking purposes. May I now uh go to and all the best for your new job once again Alexander. Nine months is nothing. So uh can I now uh go to uh the uh the African Development Bank Group? We have the we have the Mrs. Akin senior vice president. Over to you madam. >> Thank you very much and good afternoon everyone. On behalf of Dr. Cidi Ulta, president of the African Development Bank. I would like to commend the government of Kenya and Norway together with all the other organizer for bringing clean cooking to the level of attention that it has long deserved. And seeing this room so full is really a a cause for joy because and it cannot be otherwise because really clean cooking sits at the intersection of health, of energy, climate, gender equality, economic productivity. And really how a family cooks should not be the determinant of its health, of its education, environmental sustainability or or even economic opportunities. And therefore, clean cooking is indeed a development imperative. And at the African Development Bank, we recognize that electricity access alone will not transform lives if we continue to have household who rely on polluting and inefficient cooking solution. Um, since the 2024 summit on clean cooking in Africa, I'm very pleased to um confirm that clean cooking has become an integral part of our energy access agenda and our ambition to achieve universal access to modern energy across Africa. Mission 300 I think uh AJ has mentioned it led by the African Development Bank and the World Bank with the support of several partners provides for us a powerful platform to accelerate progress. Why? Because actually the 36 National Energy Compact that have been adopted to date all include clean cooking as a very important component. And as we know all these energy compact reflects a breath of issues. So through that we will address policy issues, financing issues, implementation, partnership, uh gender, health, climate. So all of that is already in the mission 300 energy compact. So we cannot but focus on that uh uh uh agenda and really our collective responsibility now is to translate all this commitment into investment into implementation into measurable results and really as we look ahead to COP 31 and of course the 2027 summit in uh in in Kenya we we must sustain this momentum and we must strengthen the support for national priorities. We must accelerate practical solution including in school, in health facilities, in government building. So in Paris, we pledged, the African Development Bank pledged $2 billion over the next 10 years. And I'm pleased to report that we have already actually extended $135 million to clean cookie initiative just in the last two years. And really across Africa we are really beginning to see what success looks like. Uh Uganda is integrating clean cooking in energy access program. Tanzania is embedding it in the major electrification investment that they are doing. So it's not an isolated initiative. Ronda is pioneering resultbased approaches. I think President R mentioned resultbased financing as a way to promote this agenda. Ghana is advancing cleaner household energy solution through policy reform, market development and private sector engagement. And we are also mobilizing more concessional and catalytic finance which is required to accelerate this transition. And for that we are working with the Rome process mate plan financing and also the Africa clean cooking program under the SEA and we are looking for private sectorled solution. We are also pushing the frontier of innovation. I'm sorry President R has left but I wanted to tell him that his country was really a pioneer uh client for us because our first cardboard pre-inance transaction with Kenyabased burn so the company burn manufacturing is demonstrating how future carbon revenues can actually unlock immediate financing for clean cooking technology. This is something that we have done not something that we are we we are just talking about and really through blended finance platform such as park boost Africa fund we are also helping enterprises scale up their impact. So in conclusion indeed I don't think that the success will be measured by the dollars that we investing although it helps a lot but by the lives that are going to be transformed and we believe that um no woman should risk her life her health because she cooks for her family. uh no child should miss education because they have to go and collect uh fuel and there is no energy transition that will be complete if it leaves the kitchen behind. So it is a matter of dignity for us. It is a matter of climate outcome. It's a matter of development. So it's really not simply an energy outcome. Thank you very much. very many thanks uh uh to African Development Bank and also uh thank you and your group for working with us very closely on this uh topic. Can I now go to Brazil? We are fortunate to have the ambassador do the the vice minister. Over to you uh Andre. >> Thank you. Thank you so much Fati. Uh I believe that uh President Lula will be so happy to know that this meeting is such a success because he's so much uh uh into that issue uh and he uh insisted on having it in our G20, insisted on having it uh also at COP 30 and it was a very important part uh of the action agenda and we're very happy that we're all together here for this amazing endeavor. But uh it's true that first of all it's a it's a moral issue. It's a humanitarian issue. So it's difficult to go and get into the other dimensions. But the other dimensions are extremely important because they are the ones that will bring solutions and the truth uh is that it is really a development issue. uh and uh we have uh to get together and make sure uh that uh the structures that we have uh converge to uh allow uh clean cooking in Africa to progress much more quickly as uh the secretary uh general has said. Uh it is also for us extremely important because uh it touches 10 SDGs. It it improves 10 SDGs. I'm going to be another man to mention gender but I think it's fair we have to uh and fighting poverty access to energy there are so many uh issues uh that uh this will support but naturally as president of COP 30 I have to talk about the dimension of climate change and I'm very happy the administrator of the UNDP has mentioned that uh and uh um clean cooking is very strongly reflected in the two road maps uh I'm going to present uh by uh the early November one the road map on the transitioning away uh and uh I think that uh it's very important to see all the solutions that we have regarding that but also the road map on ending deforestation that was also mentioned by Mr. the crew. So, uh I think I cannot agree more uh with Secretary Wright that this is solvable. We definitely have something in hands that is solvable and people will see the difference and it will change uh the life literally uh of billions of people. So, thank you. Thank you so much for convening this and uh my most congratulations to President R for hosting that um summit that will be delighted to come and fatty this is an issue that for you is central and you're a hero in that issue. Thank you. O tell you that you madame vice president mentioning COP 31 both uh prime minister Albanza and President Erdogan they both agreed that this will be I'm very happy personally they both agreed to put it in the also COP 31 in Antalya it will be discussed we have colleagues from the our vice minister of foreign affairs Mrs. Akeni is here and this is of course a great issue to get the support of different world leaders for this. May I now move to Sierra L. We have the minister of energy excellency anogant. >> Good afternoon excellencies. Um I'd like to thank uh the United Nations, the IAEA, Clean Cooking Alliance, uh World Bank, all of who who are here. I'd like to thank the leadership of Kenya who we seem to follow. Um the Kenya has established a clean cooking development unit and we followed through with ours as well. I'd like to thank um Norway and I especially want to thank Secretary Wright uh who has been a champion a passionate champion of clean cooking and in fact uh he's worked with our president Bo uh to help us um promote clean cooking at scale which we hope to announce uh in Nairobi. Um I want to echo uh the issues well we are preaching to the choir everybody here knows what the issues are. Um um Secretary Wright said a quarter of humanity at stake. Um it's uh he did say it was a clean cook and fuel problem and I was quite amused that he did say it's a women's liberation uh issue and we we we side with that. It's a public health issue. There's no question about it. uh and and it's also um in our case um where we are now uh 1.5 access uh to clean cooking um and we hope through our M300 uh goals um ambitious goals which we hope to push to 25% through many many uh uh uh schemes uh um we know it a finance and infrastructure problem and we thank again uh Secretary Knight who is going to help us with the US LPG who are going to push uh clean cooking to scale. Um so the next time that we meet in Nairobi, we will be announcing our ambitious goals uh where we are going to be using and making sure that um the use of LPG uh as a fuel to get to scale for millions of Serenians is going to be a reality. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Minister, can I now go to uh Ireland? We have Mr. O'Brien who is the minister for climate, environment and energy. Over to you uh Mr. Minister. >> Thank you Dr. with some trepidation that I follow such distinguished speakers uh before me, but I just to say look the statistics are striking. I think it's been mentioned by Secretary Wright and and uh Ambassador as well like 2.5 million premature deaths with something that we can actually do something about it and it's very uh gratifying but also to see that the progress that has been made but I think we're all in agreement that this is something that we can accelerate and accelerate greatly without the need for new technologies and that's been very very clear. Look, we've been really uh happy uh and proud actually be to have supported since 2022 the Clean Cooking Alliance and indeed for all of the um the really important work that that is actually doing and I really do want to commend both the Brazilian, South Africa and the current US uh G20 presidencies for really shining a spotlight uh on this particular issue, the lack of availability for clean cooking and most importantly how we can protect protect the most vulnerable also very conscious I'm another man who's speaking about protecting those most vulnerable being women and girls in this instance so we know what the lack of access uh the lifelong um negative socioeconomic effects that actually has households spend an average of 4 hours per day uh collecting fuel and cooking over uh inefficient stoves uh by using traditional cooking methods. So we also know that cooking with biomass, it's been mentioned already the detrimental effect that that has on health and outcomes indeed on emissions. Um and you know we've recently provided it was fantastic to hear President Ruto here today h speaking in Kenya. We've been able to work in partnership there about the provision of services for delivery unit networks in Kenya also in Sierra Leon as well ensuring that they are effectively resourced to drive national clean cooking and clean energy agendas and you know I think when we look at SG goal seven access to affordable reliable sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 this should drive us in this space of something that there has been great progress made and I want to assure you Dr. Burell that as minister for energy and also minister has assumed the the presidency of the of of the EU as well at this stage for this six-month period that I really welcome the work that that that you've done. We were delighted to be there in July uh under the IEA's leadership as well and seeing what has what has moved from there and look all of us who are here present are I think really um uh positive about what we can do but we've got to redouble our efforts there. uh in in that regard and with that in mind like I am very pleased to announce an initial voluntary contribution uh from Ireland as well to ensure the roll out of the clean cooking alliance under the IEA of about 340,000 US uh and to help support um thank you colleagues but to help support the establishment of this new working group which is absolutely critical and I really want to commend the leadership that all of you have spoken before me have shown in this area. It's something that is right central on the agenda. I think Secretary Wright, you have in particular shone a light on this. I commend you for that and it shows that where we can look at issues that are there that are solvable that working together h on this we can really advance progress in this regard. So a real honor to be with you here uh friends this afternoon to assure you in in that negotiations in COP from an EU perspective uh from the EU and leading out in those negotiations with the EU that we will ensure that clean cooking and that our support for of EU states for this initiative and acceleration of this initiative remains central to everything that we do. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much Mr. Minister, we love Ireland. So, thank you very much. This is amazing. Now, may I turn to the We have another minister, Minister of Energy and Money from Lizoto, Minister Mupenn. >> Uh thank you. Thank you very much. Uh Dr. Let me also thank all the the states, United States, Kenya, Norway and the development partners for this important initiative. Uh we will all agree that uh cooking is an imperative for all households and therefore it is no longer about what we say, it is about what we do and if it is not in in the performance acrements of the officials, it will not be done. And therefore as the kingdom of Lutro, we would like to commit that one of the initiatives that we we we intend to do is to establish a section or a department of clean cooking in the ministry of energy. Lut's mountous terrain and dispersed uh rural settlements make conventional and crit expansion extremely difficult and costly. As a result, around 60% of the population living in the rural areas remain heavily dependent on traditional biomass. Recent surveys findings show that biomass accounts for 66% of rural primary energy use while 59.1% of rural households rely on open fire or traditional biomass for cooking. This dependence comes with a heavy human cost. Inefficient biomass burning causes dangerous indoor air pollution contributing to respiratory and other health problems. It also places a disproportionate burden on women and girls. Nearly 19% of rural households dep spends seven or more hours every week collecting firewood time that could instead be devoted to education, livelihoods, and community participation. Distinguished delegates, falsu, clean cooking and clean space heating must be addressed together. As a high altitude country, we experience severe winters with freezing temperatures, frost, and snow. Nearly 48% of rural homes rely on indoor open fire and traditional freezers for heating. While 60% 60.6% of urban households depend on paraffin heaters. Yet only 18% of homes nationwide have coldresistant construction or thermal insulation. Space heating in Lutu is therefore not a luxury. It is a matter of survival. The government of Lutu is determined to change this reality. In 2025, we joined the mission 300 initiative and we are advancing a national clean cooking and space heating advocacy campaign. Our target is clear to achieve more than 75% households adoption of clean cooking and thermal space heating solution across all 10 districts by 2030. while expanding mini grids, solar home systems, green connections and modern electricity electric cooking through the asend loo project in partnership with the World Bank and other development partners. We are expanding grit and mini grid access and developing a national clean cooking and space heating strategy. The Kingdom of Lassud is also working uh with development partners to generate green energy and be a net exporter of green energy to the southern African region. We invite our international partners, financiers, climate funds and private sector to support our priorities concessional and result based financing targeting investments in cold climate heating and thermal housing technology transfer and local manufacturing and capacity building for carbon market participation. Your excellencies, when we provide a clean cook stove to a mut woman in Motang and Tabasa, we provide more than an appliance. We give her back our our hours of her life. We protect her life, her children and forests and her dignity. And on behalf of the Kingdom of Lotu, we have already accepted the invitation to participate in Kenya in 2027. I thank you. Thank you very much uh Mr. Minister. We were honored to host the kink of Lizo at the headquarters isn't it? Thank you very much sir. So may I now turn to my colleague cabinet secretary for energy Mr. Vanay from Kenya to further to moderate our session. Over to you sir. >> So thank you very much uh Dr. uh Fatty and thank you Secretary Wright and thank you to all our distinguished speakers uh for setting the stage so powerfully. >> We now turn to the final segment >> uh of our conversation very much. >> We turn to the final segment of our conversation where we would like to hear from our partners and leaders in the room on how we can translate this growing momentum into investment action and delivery. Now, in the interest of time uh and to allow us to hear from as many voices as possible, I would request that each speaker to limit the intervention to a maximum of 2 minutes if agreeable. Okay. Uh I would now want to invite his excellency Kell Man, the secretary general of the African continental free trade area to take the floor. It's on there. Okay. It's on there. Okay, that's fine. Okay. You will then be requested to raise your name tags and then we shall uh call you at random without following any particular order. Let's hear from Mr. Albuis, the CEO of Africa 50. I can see you are raising your name tag. I raised my hand. I don't know that there's name tag yet. But anyway, so thank you u uh cabinet secretary Wai, my brother. Want to also to express my gratitude uh to my friend uh Dr. Fatibol and then also uh the the US uh Norway, Kenya of course for convening this uh this event together with the African Development Bank. Look, I since uh 2024 uh the clean cooking summit, we've seen a significant momentum, but clearly we need to do a lot more. Uh we need to scale up the impact. Uh at Africa 50, we believe clean cooking and same as distributed renewable energy. This is core infrastructure. I think we we need to see a lot more equity, equity investment. There is quite a bit of debt already in the market. So what is missing? equally to capitalize companies that would deliver uh clean cooking solutions. That's what we're doing. Uh two days ago uh right here in New York uh we announced the commercial close of our uh DR fund which we are co-managing with Nigeria investment authority uh $300 million for DR but that will include also clean cooking. three weeks ago uh actually four weeks ago in Zimbabwe we announced a Panaffrican fund not only announcing the commercial close meaning that we are ready to start to deploy the capital that's a $200 million fund so all together we have 4 $500 million that we could invest in DR including clean cooking so this is what we are doing in terms of the project we're also moving on project actually I should say platforms because individual project are too small we need to do platform so we can scale in Ethopia. What we are doing is quite interesting. Together with the African Development Bank and the Ethiopia Sovereign Wealth Fund, what we are doing is basically a utility anchored financing vehicle. We we are using the billing system of the utility to to to target as many people are possible to deliver looking appliance. We are targeting 8.8 million people over 10 years. Similarly, in Kenya, we aggregating the demand to make sure that we can build bankable structures. In summary, what we need to do now is to invest, is to move. I mean the policy people continue to do policy. We need to push the investment. We have some of the funds equity. We we can catalyze. We are looking for partners by the time we came to we go to Kenya in January uh actually in the at the conference in 2027. We believe we'll be able to announce not only our funds but also a platform that will deliver clean cooking at scale. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Let's hear from Miss Rachel Kit, United Kingdom. >> Thank you very much. >> Come on. Yeah. Thank you very much. So, uh all uh protocol and all diagnosis observed. Uh three points in two minutes. Uh delivery is possible. Finance has to align behind what works and clean cooking must be fit for the modern age of uh energy transitions and the age of electricity. Uh many many countries have shown that progress accelerates when governments set direction, set clear targets and bring partners behind their national plans. That's how national plans become then investable pipelines, finance becomes coordinated and delivery starts to reach households. The urgency that's needed where the challenge is greatest is in subsaharan Africa. But we've seen from President R and others leadership. Second, no country or institution delivers this alone. Since 2016, the transforming energy access program, which we uh have uh which we fund and sponsor as the UK, has improved clean energy access for tens of millions of people, help test and grow new technologies. Modern energy cooking services has improved clean cooking access for about five million people. building the evidence for electric cooking, e- cooking, uh helped put international policy and leveraged a further 600 million pounds and we've leveraged about two billion through tea over the years. I think what's also interesting is that we've now sort of come up with new business models where we can do um a new utility for humanitarian situations. And so the idea that we can't reach the furthest uh mile is is is is pro is is disproven at the moment. We've got modern cooking partnerships with Saudi Arabia and France. We've got e- cooking demonstrators going on in school programs linking school feeding to e- cooking across East Africa. So we we we know the proven models that work and now we have to bring the finance behind that. We are on the cusp of being able to make carbon works for work markets work for Africa. One something that's very important for COP 32 and the tools are at hand. We've got cook stoves projects that are supplying the first ever article 6.4 credits. like-minded governments working together to unlock market demand. And then third, the transition has to be genuinely clean and future-f facing. As Amina Muhammad said, we're in the process of energy transitions. And so the answers to clean cooking fit into the answers to the energy transition. Countries can ride the trends of electrification as well. And especially at this particular moment with global uh energy disruption, why should households and governments be locked into solutions that are simply going to be uh victim to fossil fuel and price volatility? I think that's where e- cookooking provides reliable and affordable power that is also part of energy security and part of household security. And then finally, just personal, I I don't whether it whether I've been working on this for 40 years or 25 years, but a long time with with many of the other women in this room in particular, and I think I've been at sessions in the UN on this before, maybe not with so many uh esteemed men in the room at the time. But I think that there is an important point here and and Secretary Wright, you said this, right, that this is a business problem. And what's really interesting to me is that that two billion people in the world who don't have access to clean cooking, the billion of them more or less in Africa, that's one hell of a market. And we talk about empowering women and we talk about building markets, but those women are a market. And if you empowered them, if they had the financial means, they would go out and choose the clean cooking solutions that they need in order to keep their families safe. And so I would ask that in powerful rooms like this, we simply connect the reality of household finances, women's access to finance, trusting them to make the right solutions and the provision of the solutions from the supply side that we're all working on. I think then perhaps we can go at speed and scale. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> It is now the turn of the WH. >> Thank you very much. Um uh excellencies, we've been discussing all afternoon the lack of clean uh cooking as an energy issue, a development issue, a humanitarian issue, a climate issue, but uh fundamentally and originally, of course, as as a number of you have spoken to, it was a health issue. And um you spoke at the 850,000 deaths a year, but when we look globally, it's closer to three million. And many people speak to that. And Secretary, you spoke so nicely of the the mental health cost as well. and the well-being costs of the opportunity costs associated with searching for fuels. But what we don't talk about and and I'm going to give you another number and a more powerful number right now. What we don't talk about is the injuries that are also caused uh and and chronic diseases by this. But as a result of that and and and Faty, I want to make sure you heard the number is that we estimate that we lose nearly 100 million years of healthy life every single year because of unclean cooking. I mean the number is staggering. So what we um are big believers at who of course in the health energy nexus and as we go forward three big things from our side. First and foremost will be helping to generate the evidence and the numbers that everybody has been quoting. Um but the second is the normative guidance around what cooking mechanisms are actually safe for health because not everything is and not everything quoted uh actually some today aren't. uh and then finally the technical support to help countries. But the other thing that we're really trying to do is leverage the tremendous trust in the health sector and health deliverers to actually be clean cooking champions as we go forward. So with all of that fully committed and uh we will be there in Nairobi. Thank you for that invitation and we look forward to the second summit and doing our part. >> Most welcome Nairobi. Uh let's hear from France. you. Thank you, Minister. It's a pleasure to to be here with you after our big uh event in Africa, the French Africa for what summit uh held in Nairobi in May and and I'm will be very brief just to reiterate full French support on your initiative and your leadership. Uh just to recall also that money is already flowing after the f the very first uh clean cooking summit held by the IA in Paris uh back in the days where President MRO and several leaders commit to to the very first step of this initiative and it's very positive to see it's getting bigger and bigger interest. Uh I I will just uh explain a little bit what France is doing and we are working with our France uh development agency to mainstream clean cooking as a part of all investment strategy which is really consistent and we will be happy to showcase it in in Nairobi. Uh we have we are also fully supporting you in the electrification agenda. Let's bring this topic to COP 31 because I mean electrification of clean cooking will bring also affordability for those households. We all know when we recalled called together in Nairobi that Africa has a gigantic potential on renewable energy which is critical for for energy sovereignty. We are also working with a lot of African country on on nuclear and uh in this context of very difficult uh energy prices affordability of electricity will be critical if we we want to solve this problem. So you can contact us we will be there in Nairobi and congratulation against for your leadership on this critical issue. >> Thank you very much. Let's now hear from Ghana. >> Your excellencies, um, Ghana is grateful to you for the opportunity to be at this high level side event. For us in Ghana, the issue of clean cooking is not a side issue. It is very critical in our energy transition. As I speak, as a country, we have completed our national clean cooking policy and strategy. We are just one validation workshop and cabinet approval away from the implementation. Ghana is ready as we speak. We have received about $17 million from the World Bank. We are targeting to spend about $500 million to provide 5 million um cook stoves across households. And our expectation is that by January 2027 when we meet in Kenya, by the time Ghana's policy would have been approved by cabinet and implementation would have started. Ghana is ready and we invite investment partners to come join us so that we move the conversation from policy to real action. It is our expectation that this issue of clean cooking will not be one of the many issues discussed at high level conferences and nothing is seen after. But we want to see follow-up action. Follow-up action that will lead to ensuring that every household, especially households that women, single mothers are suffering from the issue of not having access to clean energy and clean cooking. They should be able to have these solutions in the household level. So we invite all of you to support us and I believe we'll meet in Nairobi in January. Thank you. So we move further south to South Africa. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you chairperson. Uh excellencies and uh distinguished delegates. uh South Africa welcomes uh the opportunity uh to address an issue uh that is fundamental uh of course uh to agenda uh 2030 and the related SDGs and u takes this uh uh opportunity uh to express its support for this important uh initiative for South Africa. Clean cooking is not merely an energy question. It is a a a matter of health, dignity, uh gender equality, environmental sustainability and um inclusive economic development. As has been uh indicated in the um interventions uh we had earlier uh close to 1 billion uh people in Africa lack access to clean uh cooking uh solutions. And we've heard of course about uh the the consequences of of that especially for women and children. It is for this reason chairperson and and and excellencies that during its G20 presidency last year uh South Africa highlighted the the scale of this challenge in particular the urgent need uh to close the uh clean cooking gap. uh chairperson South Africa's approach is grounded in the principle that there cannot be um a just energy transition if millions of people uh remain excluded uh from modern energy services. Uh our objective uh therefore should be universal access to cooking solutions that are affordable, reliable, safe, sustainable and appropriate to national and local circumstances. Um it is also uh in this regard that during our G20 presidency, South Africa championed the voluntary infrastructure in investment action plan to accelerate the deployment of clean cooking solution. This action plan identifies four critical areas namely policy ina enablement, mobilization of finance, uh a market and industry development and closing the knowledge gap. Uh we wish uh to in this regard uh specifically uh highlight uh the the important question of finance uh for many developing countries and particularly uh low-income households. The principal obstacles uh is not necessarily the absence of technology but the absence of affordable finance and infrastructure uh required to deploy uh that technology uh at scale. We therefore uh call for greater mobilization of concessional finance, blended finance, development finance and private sector investment while ensuring that the burden of the transition uh does not fall uh disproportionately on poor and vulnerable households. Um as I conclude, Mr. chairperson and of course guided by the African spirit of Wundu which is uh the belief that I am because we are South Africa calls uh for strengthened international solidarity uh to ensure that every household can cook safely, affordably and sustainably. I thank you. Thank you very much. And as we proceed, I once again urge that we restrict ourselves to 2 minutes maximum to allow as many as possible to be heard. Let's now proceed to Denmark. Thank you so much. Um and and a huge thank you for all of you uh at the high table uh today. I I think it's it's really been amazing to to witness the unique political will and the momentum we have behind clean cooking today. That that is really what we need to drive this agenda forward. Uh my main message uh today is that Denmark, we were there with my former minister Daniel Jorgensson in Paris. Uh we will stay committed to invest in clean cooking. Um, of course we can discuss all the priorities on technology. I think a a key important thing is that the technology has to fit the household and the women who cook. We cannot overlook that factor when we employ this new technology. Uh, but also whatever technology we we employ, it's actually no matter what much more energy efficient uh than the burning of of the wood that is happening uh right now. Obviously we see e- cooking as if you take the life circle cost uh as a as a as a unique solution moving forward. Um we also firmly believe it's a private sector market. Uh we will help pushing that forward. Uh we are investing together with the World Bank uh uh moving uh this agenda. Uh we are planning new initiatives that we will bring to Nairobi uh my second home. So, I'm looking so much forward coming back to your beautiful country in January next year. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Let's uh hear from Netherlands. Thank Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um it's it's a pity that this foul cannot be used as a burning material because I'm not not going to to to to use it. Uh what I uh wanted to say is that from this discussion it is clear that no matter where where you come from, no matter what your point of departure is, um we all consider woodfired cooking as a problem of all of us uh of humanity if you wish. Um that means that we need uh a lot of cooperation to solve it. Um it also means that um those that are closest to the fire should be in the driving seat. They their voices should be heard and that's about the individuals uh that cook. It's about uh local communities. Uh it's about um the uh governments of Africa that are the only ones that will be able to um support the creation of markets that work and deliver what is necessary and to deliver the necessary infrastructure. Um as for the cooperation uh and the solidarity, I would just like to commend all those that have been working on this issue with all their energy for a long time. uh and also welcome all the um people of the NOS's, charities uh and companies that are here today because this really should be a collective effort. As for the Netherlands, we've been u a substantive donor for more than a decade now and we also stand ready to support the integration of the clean cooking alliance in the international energy agency so that it can use the expertise and the organizational capacity of the IEA uh but also maintain uh the specific um dimension of the clean cooking alliance. Many thanks. Thank you very much. Let's get some remarks from Chevron. >> Thank you very much. Um and it's uh kind of wonderful being in a UN um room uh where Chevron is invited to be part of the solutions um and uh offer up some of our ideas. And I will pick up a point that um was made by uh the colleague from the UK. Um providing access to clean cooking is great for business. Chevron has long known that. It's why we have made investments in the communities in which we operate. It's why we are proud members of the Bettering Human Lives Foundation. And there's three points I'd like to make. First and foremost, Chevron is in the business of of providing the affordable, reliable energy that the world needs to fuel human progress. And we put our capital investments into doing that in partner countries like Nigeria, like Angola, like Equatorial Guinea, like Cameroon, like so many countries across subsaharan Africa. Second, we do recognize that strong communities equal a strong workforce for our operations in those countries. It's why with our charitable investments, we recognize if you invest in a woman, you invest in a family. You invest in the family, you strengthen a community, and you strengthen a nation. That's why we have been making partnership uh uh um commitments uh for women's initiatives across subsaharan Africa. And third, we don't just talk about it. We actually put our money where our mouth is. We just made a commitment for $25 million investment in the Niger Delta in to work in partnership with the Nigerian government to invest on initiatives focused exclusively on those community development projects, including access to clean cooking stoves. We also just announced anou including a $1 million commitment which was just made in the past month uh working in partnership with the Bettering Human Lives Foundation on ways to explore expanding that. At the end of the day, those partnerships with money behind them are how we're going to tackle this problem because businesses know how to scale these solutions and we're proud to be part of the solution for this important issue. Thank you. Okay, we now turn to ban manufacturing. >> Thanks. >> Thanks very much. Cabinet secretary burn is one of the largest clean cooking distributors and manufacturers in the world. And I want to start today by expressing my gratitude because we may be one of the few companies in this room who've actually received the money that gets pledged in a session like this. So as was mentioned um we've were one of the first recipients from funding from the African Development Bank SAFA program as well as from the World Bank's Ascent program for clean cooking. And I want to assure all of you that that money is now not just sitting in an account. It's now electric stoves that are deployed in homes in kitchens in Kenya and across Africa. And the first takeaway I have for all of you is this. The time between signature and full deployment on these kinds of programs, it used to take years. Now we're seeing it happen in weeks or months. It's happening a lot faster. And at burn, we're deploying hundreds of thousands uh of stoves to homes every month. We sell a stove every 10 seconds across electric stoves, LPG stoves, and the world's most advanced biomass stoves. Second takeaway is this. The evidence is in. Now, a randomized control trial on our stoves was just published in July out of Wharton and Chicago Booth, and it found that burn stoves are, I quote, among the most effective abatement opportunities available to the world today. Hundreds of times more effective than EV or solar subsidies. And they also found that nearly all the stoves are still in use and providing enormous benefit four years after deployment. So we're past the point of asking whether this works. So my ask is about the scale. Over $2 billion has been pledged since Paris and so far only a fraction of that has reached the ground. We're still seeing that financing in this sector is often happening in small batches. 10,000 stoves here, 50,000 stoves there. Um, and that's for a problem that's affecting a billion people. The bottleneck is not proof anymore and it's not capacity. At Burn alone, we have five factories in Africa, 3 and a half thousand staff and a capacity of 6 million stoves to deploy each year. Those factories are not running at full capacity today. So, I applaud the pledges and it's really the most promise I've ever seen in this sector in my 13 years working in it. But I also implore all of us, let's make a step change in the scale. Let's move from funding pilots to funding programs and infrastructure that match the size of the problem. At Burn, we're ready to deploy. Um, we can start tomorrow. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Again, in the interest of time, I'm now suggesting we reduce the time to 1 minute each and we proceed with Enia. Energia, >> we have to close in the next 10 minutes. Yes. >> Yes. Thank you. Um I join the voices uh to congratulate the co-organizers in this milestone event at UNRA. Um and I'd like to build on the comments of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to recognize the role of civil society um uh that plays in this uh transition to uh clean cooking for oil. As I noticed that I probably will be the only civil society voice uh speaking here today. Civil society uh bridges the uh gap between policy and uh people. We work closely with communities and connects people's lived daily experiences, particularly those of women and marginalized groups, um to understanding uh local needs, building trust, supporting behavioral change interventions that are critical for adoption, sustained use and clean cooking solutions. For example, uh the role that uh health workers play in have played in Nepal, India and in Nigeria. Uh we're also uh important in um uh working with uh local authorities and with national governments uh in bringing the perspectives of local communities into planning process. An example is the county of Embu in Kenya where a civil society organization practical action has been leading um in working with local authorities to engage with community leaders and women's groups in task force that are uh shaping much more inclusive uh uh planning processes designing with communities rather than for communities. Third, play an important accountability role such as bring a constructive counterveilling voice to processes uh in the uh mission uh uh 300 um um um um uh roll out. Uh civil society organizations are also important in reaching the last mile particularly in underserved communities where commercial markets and public services are limited. working in companies such as burn and envirit to get to the hardest to reach areas um where uh others uh uh do not engage. Um if we are serious about achieving universal access to clean cooking by 2030, we must recognize civil society not just as an add-on invited to meetings but as a strategic partner and we look forward to a stronger and more meaningful engagement uh at the clean cooking forum in Nairobi next year. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let Germany take the floor. >> Yeah. >> All right. I just go ahead. Thank you very much. Um, it's good now. All right, that's perfect timing. Thank you very much for the invitation and for for for for sharing us on this important topic. As you probably know, Germany has been spearheading clean cooking for more than 20 years um and including in Kenya um and through the energizing development program together with other European partners like the Netherlands, for example, Norway and Switzerland. And overall um I'm happy to say that 28.6 Six million people have actually gained access to clean cooking solutions. So that engagement is there and we are committed to continuing our engagement through various bilateral and multilateral M M300 has been mentioned many many times in the room um over the coming years and we always also look forward to the to the summit. Having said that, um we strongly believe that um you know recognizing country circumstances and and and also national strategies and long-term strategies are the best way to go. Um and also having said that I we we do see as as uh Mr. D Crow uh mentioned and others do see the benefits of electric cooking um these days just looking at the cost and also looking at the the increasing viability not not talking against um openness for technologies but I think looking at cost effectiveness it is just something we need to recognize if we look at um you know the successes in grid expansion now also the price development for electric cooking and also looking at resilience if you look at current trade patterns in this world and interruptions of delivery channels. There are benefits of electrification and we therefore also strongly support that the COP presidency um has proposed the global electrific electrification goal of 35 by 35 and we fully support that clean cooking should be an integral part of this agenda. So Germany is fully behind that. Um as I said fully recognizing national strategies and different pathways to move in that in that direction um with that 20 yearear-old engagement through energizing uh um um uh uh development. We are of course also very ready to be part of the summit and I'm also happy to announce that we have recently joined the clean cooking alliance. Thank you very much to IEA for hosting and we look forward to um really continuing this conversation on mobilizing the right finance uh supporting the best strategies at country level and including that whenever possible and wherever possible in the respective decarbonization strategies of the countries we work with. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Let's hear briefly from Rockefeller Foundation. and thank you. Um, at the Rockefeller Foundation, our focus is on increasing access. Okay. Sorry. >> Do you have two Rockefeller Foundations? >> Okay. Sorry, Andy. Go first. >> Okay, fine. Just one person, please. >> That's him. >> Mission 300. >> Okay. Okay. >> So, who is having the floor? >> Is that is that Rockefeller Foundation? >> Mission 300 accelerator at the Rockefeller. >> Okay. Let Mission 300. Can you proceed? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Then the Foundation. >> Appreciate it. So, to to to avoid the confusion, the mission 300 accelerator with the Rockefeller Foundation. We've had a lot of discussion about mission 300. So I thought it'd be good to share a little perspective about what we've been doing on clean cooking since the announcement um in Paris a few months ago when when our team along with others with Dimna Amana from my team and Shana from Department of Energy we we launched the clean cooking accelerator initiative with energy core the global energy alliance co-action global um CC one of the things that we did was we um decided to place clean cooking fellows in several countries and I'm just pleased to report that over the last few weeks I visited with some of those fellows who are actually making quite a bit of progress. Um I was in Kivvoir two weeks ago and we were having a session on mission 300 with all the government officials to check in on progress. A question came up from civil society. What about clean cooking and who jumped in but the clean cooking fellow to talk about how important it was to mission 300 and what they're doing. Similarly, last week I was in Madagascar and it was our fellow there who organized a meeting with the Clean Cooking Alliance that's based in Madagascar. And it struck me that you're Madagascar is the fourth largest uh island in the world. Um it's 80% of the species in Madagascar are endemic to Madagascar only. Only 10% of the people use clean cooking and in the next 10 years all the forests will be gone if we don't address this issue. And so what struck me is that what we need to do with mission 300, one of the things we have been doing are least cost electrification plans in every country. Not all countries have least cost energy plans. Plans that look at both the least cost of not just electrification but the least cost of clean cooking. And I'd like just to draw on the comment from my my friend the commissioner from the African Union who mentioned that we need to respect national circumstances. We need to respect local circumstances. I had an opportunity to meet with people in small villages and every household is different in terms of what it needs and what they want. So this is why you need these plans to look at what the lowest cost of clean cooking is going to be. It might be LPG, it might be e cookooking, it might be something else, but that's where we need to focus and that's where we're going to make the progress. >> Thank you. Rockefeller Foundation. >> Thank you. At the Rockefeller Foundation, our focus is on increasing access to school meals. And for us, we're very conscious if we're to do that. 80% of school meals are actually prepared using biomass. They say it takes an equivalent of one tree uh to feed a child for a year. So, how are we solving this? Uh we're working with government so that we can develop mass transition plans. uh we've started with the government of Kenya where we've developed a plan to transition all the schools uh all the public schools to clean cooking and then also thinking about how that financing can be supported. Uh specifically uh we're working with the government to develop a carbon project and uh hopefully that will be one of the first to go into the market and then also looking to work with other governments. We've already started working with the government of uh Rwanda. uh we look forward to working with you um on the conference and we commit to supporting financing for the conference and then also in developing and planning the agenda for that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Very briefly, let's hear from VTOL. >> Good afternoon. Thank you very much. Vl is an energy and infrastructure company. Uh together with our daughter company Vivo Energy, we have energy distribution assets in 30 African countries and LPG distribution in 17 African countries. We've long invested in clean cooking and an LPG. And as part of the 2024 initiative in Paris, we committed to invest $550 million by 2030. I'm pleased to report that we've invested $150 million to date and we have a pipeline of projects that we see making the rest of that commitment. Uh I'd like to just bring my perspective on three things to this room today. To accelerate clean cooking with LBG and with the other initiatives uh carbon credits and the ability to generate those credits under article six is a big accelerator that could enable a lot of revenue to be used to subsidize the cook stoves to build that market that our colleague from the United Kingdom described. Um, so that is really a huge opportunity that I urge everybody to to think about moving away from voluntary credits. Number two is consistent regulations. For us, we care first and foremost about health and safety not only of the people but also of our operations. And consistent regulation of the safety of the distribution chain is important to ensure that that stays paramount. And the third one is as we talk about clean cooking as infrastructure as a private investor uh stable regulations is very important to us so that we understand the market structures and that we can make our investments with confidence that the regulations will stay that way for the medium term. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. And now to now to wind up, let's hear from Nigeria. Thank you um distinguished ladies and gentlemen, your excellencies. Um for Nigeria, we have similar plans as Ghana. We have been able to come up with an ambitious plan which is to sort of touch 5 million homes with clean access to clean cooking by 2030. But Mr. President thought that we should make it a longer plan. So we have moved it to 10 million homes in 2060. What do we need to achieve this? We need support. We have a national clean cooking policy but we need a framework where partners national um other um international organizations and of course we've recently joined the IEA where we hosted yourselves in Nigeria. So we need all the support we can get to get a framework. How do we make this possible? Because we have critical issues. For instance, the woman in the village, how do you explain to her that you know it's better to cook with for instance gas than firewood? You know, they die and they don't even know why they're dying. So we need a lot of sensitization to sort that out. And then we need to have access. I'm from a riverine area. Even if you give them the cylinders, how do they refill them? So we have very critical issues and that's where we need support from from you all. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I'll indulge gold standard just for one minute. >> Yes, your excellencies. Thank you very much for organizing this organ this uh meeting and for including gold standard in the discussion. Gold standard is really working to leverage finance via carbon markets for climate action and development especially in developing economies and with a strong focus on clean cooking with thousands of projects many many of them in the African continent hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 reduced and billions of shared value created. So we really believe that we can transform a carbon price or a liability on the private sector into a massive opportunity for development impact in the world because we know that there is no net zero without clean cooking. And yet household cooking sits outside corporate value chains and therefore risks being left behind amidst an increasing need for corporate decarbonization. So when we hear about how solvable the clean cooking crisis is, we can actually look to the aviation sector alone that could provide via a carbon price or market uh the finance that can drive significant investment in solving the clean cooking crisis. So we gold standard looking forward to making that happen. working with governments across Africa and with partners like the Clean Cooking Alliance and implementation partners on the ground like Burn and Ecoit um to leverage and scale carbon markets to help drive the transition to safe, reliable, clean and modern cooking, healthier homes, healthier ecosystems, women's empowerments, and improved livelihoods across the African continent and across the world. And look forward to seeing you in Nairobi in January. Thank you very much. Very briefly, Vera. >> Yes, thank you everyone. Um, and I'll just jump right into it and and pulling right off of of where Gold Center left, I I just want to raise the question on how finance actually reaches households because that is where we at Vera see the biggest um progress and also the greatest obstacles. Um the families who most need a clean stove are generally those least able to pay for one and that's why carbon finance has become so important in this sector. Uh for many clean cooking projects it's the main source of revenue if not the only. It covers the cost of the stove upfront and just as importantly it pays for the maintenance and followup that keep the stove in use years later. Um and that last point is one of the clearest lessons from more than 250 clean cooking projects in our program. Distributing a stove is the relatively easy part. Um, the health and climate benefits only materialize though if households keep using it. And because carbon revenue depends on measured continued use, it rewards exactly the kind of long-term engagement with communities that makes these projects succeed. Um, the other lesson is that finance follows integrity. And over the last uh few years, we and others have strengthened how emission reductions in this space are measured with better science, direct monitoring of stove use, and more conservative assumptions, working closely with the Clean Cooking Alliance throughout that process. Um and that work's paying off. These methodologies are approved under the integrity council for voluntary carbon market which is the highest bar for integrity in the carbon market. Um the first credits carrying the label these labels were issued in February from a project in Nigeria. Um and in January nearly 5 million credits uh from projects in Rwanda, Sierra Leon and the Gambia became the first to be labeled for airline compliance under Corsia. um with airlines now facing real obligations um there is private capital ready to flow into clean cooking alongside public commitments um made through the summit process. So just on the collaboration ahead of 2027, I would highlight one practical issue which is article six as someone else raised. Um much of the new demand for clean cooking credits from airlines and from buyer countries depends on host governments authorizing those credits under the Paris agreement. Um and many are being asked to do so before they have registries, legal frameworks or staff in place and they understand understandably want confidence that authorizing credits will not compromise their own uh climate targets. So this is a question of capacity rather than willingness and it's one that development partners in this room are well placed to support and Vera is here to support that as well. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Maybe we hear briefly from Envirit and then Wild Liquid Gas before the final remarks. Envirit turns on. Uh first of all, thank you everyone. Thanks for hanging on. Um, I'll try to keep keep the comments brief. This has been um a really uh important discussion and really I'm really uh enthusiastic to hear uh all of the points of view. I think I think we've identified a couple things here. Um so we don't have a technology problem when it comes to clean cooking. Uh Envirit has spent more than 20 years working on clean cooking. Um we're an innovator. We're a leader in the market. Um and we spent many of the first years developing clean technologies but those technologies you know are have been replicated scaled innovated past there's lot of opportunity uh around the technology side and we don't have a tech problem um you know between companies like burn envirrit others that aren't here today in the private sector we don't have a scale of production problem um you know I think what we have is a risk problem our biggest problem is who absorbs that financial risk that the customer can't absorb and that the private sector can't absorb at scale. You know, carbon finance has played a is a is a critical tool in the toolbox for us. It's played a critical role for us to be able to get into households and bridge that gap between what the household can actually afford and bringing a high technology into that household. But it is also fairly slow. It's years between the time that we put a stove into the market before we actually pay back the carbon financing and make any real margin as a company. Um, you know, so it it is a slowmoving process. You know, it's great to hear our colleagues at burn feel like the pace is picking up for access to financing, but I think I would I would uh echo for my other colleagues in the private sector that we feel like we really have a problem of pace because the financing is lagging to some extent and we need support to lower that barrier to make financing accessible and this has to be high-risisk financing. You know, 20 years on the market on the ground, I can tell you it's hard. things don't always go as planned. You know, uh when I started, I looked a lot different than I than I do now. But, um but you know, we we keep working at it and there's a lot of pe there's a lot of energy in the room. There's a lot of people that, you know, have been worried about clean cooking for for many more years than me. Uh but what we need is support on breaking the barriers to entry into those financings into the financing that's available. Um, and making sure that that high-risisk financing comes right up front because, you know, that's the part every country, every market, every community has a slightly different uh set of of priorities and and nuances and so there's going to be risk involved and we need your support. So, I'm looking forward to being there in Kenya and uh and anybody who's looking to invest dollars and if I haven't talked to you already, please come find me because we are we are ready and open for business and we're looking for you as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Yes. Liquid Gas Association. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Um I I realize we passed time so I'm going to be really brief. Um firstly, yes, big thank you to everybody for the energy uh for being here, not just here, but all of the meetings that have been held over the last several years on this. I represent the LPG industry. Uh my organization brings together about 300 private sector organizations working in 125 countries across the world. Um LPG is featured strongly here and and rightly so because it will be the largest contribution to solving this problem. Um the private sector knows what works um and we know what uh what doesn't work. We know what's holding us back and a lot of those things have been said today. Uh and I don't want to go back and talk about all of the issues. Risk is absolutely one of the major things. Um but I want to say in the last few years our industry has been getting on with this problem. Gaza povo in Brazil, Ujuala in India. We've switched more than 500 million people to cooking with LPG. Okay. So, we know what works. We need the right regulatory framework in countries. We need to work with governments to get that regulatory framework which brings down risk. Um, technology neutral. We've talked a lot about being technology neutral, but I wonder sometimes if we truly are technology neutral. Um there's been a lot of talk about particular solutions. I would say our big big issue and our big challenge is speed of deployment. You have almost a million people dying every year. We cannot afford to wait for the perfect solution when we have a solution which is deployable right now. So my plea to you is um let's not let perfect be the enemy of the good. And on that, the Stockholm Environment Institute has done a study recently. A wholesale switch to LPG for cooking by 2040 would take about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide um out of the out of the out of our cumulative emissions. That is equivalent to about taking 500 million vehicles off the road by 2040. 500 million vehicles is a third of the of the of the uh passenger cars right now in the world. And bear in mind that we have about 50 million electric vehicles right now. So it's 10 times that volume. So this is not just a health and social issue. I fully agree it's a climate issue and it's a climate issue that we can solve quickly as well. So um what I would like to say to you all here is we as the WLGA and the LPG industry stand ready to work with any government um in this room or outside this room that wants to develop a national LPG market roadmap. Um we would look at regulation, infrastructure, supply and investment needs. And I strongly believe that if we can align policy, regulation and finance, we can move millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people to clean cooking um within the next 12 years before 20 certainly before 2040. So I look forward to seeing you all in Nairobi and I hope that by then we do have some concrete projects to put before you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. would have wished to to hear the closing remarks but I can see Poland is making a case. >> Um thank you very much excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. On the part of Poland I would like to express my sincere appreciation for this significant undertaking and we support strengthening collective efforts to accelerate progress and to improve clean cooking access across Africa. uh Africa is seen as a partner with enormous growth potential and yet clean cooking remains their the most critical gap. Uh what I would like to stress is that Poland's experience suggests the most resilient transitions are those that balance affordability and energy security. Um therefore there's one thing to remember infrastructure matters. Poland has uh for instance achieved near universal access to clean cooking throughout a combination of uh networks spanning uh from import terminals to um original storage facilities. The same rule is applicable for anywhere else. Uh we believe that well planned and well-coordinated infrastructure investments are crucial to success of African countries to access the clean cooking solutions. It's um very demanding process that relies on the perseverance of many. That's why Poland is now considering joining clean cooking alliance and uh we are now undertaking um and assessing our institutional and financial capabilities to do so. Uh thank you IA for its leadership. Thank you Kenya and Norway for co-hosting this event. And thank you the US government for driving the initiative forward. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Now excellencies uh distinguished colleagues uh thank you very much for the rich and constructive interventions. So now to close this uh whole chapter of interventions and to close the uh conference allow me to give the floor to the CEO of the clean cooking alliance to make some few remarks before you call your day. Thank you. The floor is yours. Thank you colleagues and friends. Thank you so so so very much for your extraordinary leadership today. The level of political will and the diversity of partners assembled here today is unprecedented. When the Clean Cooking Alliance was founded 15 years ago, this level of engagement was only a dream. It is the direct result of years of relentless collaboration, investment, and advocacy by many, if not all of you in this room. Today, we celebrate a major milestone. Clean cooking is finally center stage at the UN General Assembly. But we cannot stop here. We must turn this unique momentum into immediate lasting action with the funding to match that. To guide us, I propose two principles. First, transitions must remain country-led. There is no single fuel, technology, or pathway that works everywhere. Governments need flexibility. They must determine the energy mix that fits their national priorities. Balancing affordability, infrastructure, and climate goals. Electricity, LPG, ethanol, biogas, and biomass must all remain on the table. For most nations, success requires the full suite of these solutions. In many regions, scaling access also means building economic trade corridors across borders. A powerful example of this is the regional clean cooking West Africa program supported by the EU and the Netherlands and implemented by CCA and partners. Our role as an international partner is clear. We we are here to expand choices, not to narrow them. And we must back those choices with predictable finance, robust technical support, and the sheer skill required to succeed. Second, ambition must be met with the capacity to deliver. Countries do not need more wishful plans. They do not need more pilot projects. They need sustained capacity to execute. We see this reality directly in CCA's delivery unit partnerships with Kenya and Sierra Leone. Let me pause here. These delivery units work. They deliver. And they deliver because they are led by deeply dedicated, inspiring leaders. They are coordinating governments and turning national strategy into real world implementation with achievements that truly matter on the ground. Crucially, this delivery agenda must extend beyond households. As President Huruto highlighted, institutional cooking is an enormous opportunity. Schools and hospitals can become market anchors, aggregating demand, creating investable opportunities, and providing solutions at scale. Colleagues, as we leave New York and look toward the next clean cooking summit in Nairobi, we cannot lose focus. We cannot not invest in clean cooking. If there's a moment to do so, it is this moment. Governments face competing complex issues, but this momentum on clean cooking is too valuable to let pass. We must turn it into immediate and lasting action. And as I said, with the funding to match. The true measure of our success is not how often cooking appears on the international stage. The true measure of our success is how we use this stage to support countries to deliver at scale. Thank you. And that marks the end of our event. >> Have a good evening.