President Julius Maada Bio addressed the Clean Cooking in Africa Summit, highlighting the severe lack of progress in this area, with nearly 80% of Africans still relying on open fires and traditional stoves using polluting fuels. He emphasized the dire consequences of this issue on health, climate, and gender equality, noting it contributes to almost half a million premature deaths of women and children annually in Africa.
President Bio stressed that the summit, organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA), aims to elevate clean cooking on the global agenda, mobilize financial commitments, and develop a roadmap for concrete, action-oriented strategies. He commended the IEA and the African Development Bank Group for convening the summit, pointing out that clean cooking is often overlooked in energy access and electrification planning processes.
“Today’s Summit is a call to action, a plea to prioritize this crucial issue for the betterment of our people and our planet,” President Bio stated. He referenced the 2023 SDG Tracking Report, which revealed that Sierra Leone’s access to clean cooking fuels and technologies was only 0.8% in 2021, with just 1.5% of the urban population and 0% of the rural population having access.
He highlighted the significant economic impact of this issue on Sierra Leone, with estimated annual costs of inaction totaling $4.7 billion, stemming from women’s lost productivity ($1.4 billion), health impacts ($3.2 billion), and climate change effects ($0.2 billion).
“This Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa to Make 2024 a Turning Point for Clean Cooking is critical for Sierra Leone, and hence my presence here today,” he declared. “We must be bold enough to implement the right policies and create the enabling environment to ensure that the nearly 1 billion people currently lacking access to clean cooking in Africa can transition to cleaner fuels and technologies.”
Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, expressed his pleasure at having global leaders gather to discuss solutions to this pressing issue. Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, shared his personal experience with the lack of access to clean cooking and emphasized the summit’s timely importance in addressing the resulting health crises and untimely deaths in Africa.
