Five ways COP31 could deliver on clean cooking

By  Ali D Mohamed

Special Envoy for Climate Change

Republic of Kenya

Around 2.1 billion people worldwide still lack access to clean cooking, relying on firewood, charcoal, coal and other polluting fuels to prepare their daily meals. Nearly one billion of them live in Africa, with another 1.2 billion across developing Asia.

Despite progress in expanding access to modern energy, clean cooking remains one of the most neglected dimensions of the global energy transition. At the current pace, the world is significantly off track to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030, as envisaged under Sustainable Development Goal 7.

The consequences extend far beyond the kitchen. Household air pollution contributes to approximately 3.2 million premature deaths annually, disproportionately affecting women and children. Reliance on traditional biomass contributes to forest degradation, greenhouse gas emissions and black carbon pollution. Women and girls also spend countless hours collecting fuel, limiting opportunities for education and economic participation.

These realities make clean cooking much more than an energy access challenge, shaping it as a climate, health, environmental, gender equality and economic development imperative. Encouragingly, the last few years have witnessed a significant shift in political attention towards clean cooking.

Successive COP processes, including COP28 in Dubai, COP29 in Baku and COP30 in Belém, have provided opportunities to elevate clean cooking within broader discussions on energy transitions, climate finance, and sustainable development. Engagements within the G20 have similarly helped strengthen international recognition of the challenge.

Clean Cooking

A major milestone came in May 2024, when the International Energy Agency convened the first Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa in Paris, mobilising approximately $2.2 billion in commitments. This momentum continued in July 2026, when a high-level virtual event on clean cooking in Africa mobilised approximately $900 million in additional commitments. In September, Kenya, together with Norway and international partners, convened the first-ever High-Level Heads of State event dedicated to clean cooking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The message emerging from these engagements has been consistent in its argument that clean cooking is no longer a peripheral development issue, but an important priority within the global energy and climate agenda. The upcoming 2nd Africa Clean Cooking Summit, scheduled for January 27th and 28th 2027 in Nairobi, provides another opportunity to consolidate this momentum, mobilise investment, and strengthen African leadership.

However, as we have seen before, political declarations and financial commitments do not automatically translate into cleaner kitchens. The real measure of progress is whether households and institutions can access, afford and consistently use cleaner cooking solutions. And this is where COP31 must make a difference. Its Presidency under Türkiye, in partnership with Australia as President of Negotiations, has placed implementation, electrification and resilience at the centre of its agenda. This emphasis is particularly relevant to clean cooking, and I want to take the next few sentences to explain why.

First, COP31's focus on translating Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into policies, investment plans and bankable projects provides an opportunity to strengthen the integration of clean cooking into national climate action. Countries now need to move beyond recognising clean cooking in their NDCs to establishing credible implementation pathways, supported by financing and measurable targets.

Climate objectives

Second, climate finance discussions offer an opportunity to address one of the sector's greatest constraints. The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), alongside ongoing discussions on aligning financial flows with climate objectives, should help ensure that historically underfunded priorities such as clean cooking receive greater attention. Australia's NDC Investment Blueprint and Türkiye's National Green Finance Strategy and Action Plan demonstrate the importance of connecting climate ambition with investment. Similar approaches could help countries translate clean cooking priorities into investable programs, capable of attracting public, concessional and private capital.

Third, COP31's proposed operationalisation of the just transition mechanism presents an opportunity to ensure that energy transitions deliver tangible benefits to vulnerable communities. For clean cooking, this means addressing affordability, protecting livelihoods, supporting local enterprises, and ensuring that women and marginalised communities are not left behind.

Fourth, and perhaps most important, is that COP31 has elevated electrification as a global priority, including the ambition to increase electricity's share of final energy consumption to 35% by 2035. Clean cooking can contribute meaningfully to this ambition as electric cooking in households, schools, hospitals and other institutions will stimulate electricity demand, improve the utilisation of existing infrastructure and strengthen the investment case for expanding reliable power supply.

To translate this opportunity into meaningful progress, five priorities deserve particular attention. The first is to make clean cooking an integral part of climate implementation, then turn climate finance commitments into accessible investment, then position institutional clean cooking as an investment opportunity, then connect clean cooking with electrification and a just energy transition, and, finally, strengthen country-led implementation, partnerships and accountability.

In a nutshell, COP31 has the opportunity to turn clean cooking commitments into action by unlocking finance, accelerating investment and delivering cleaner kitchens for all.

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Amb. Mohamed is the Special Envoy for Climate Change, Republic of Kenya