Greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of woodfuels for cooking account for 2% of global emissions, equivalent to those from the international aviation sector. Further, 50% of black carbon emissions come from household energy use and 27-34% of global woodfuel harvesting is defined as unsustainable.
In a recorded presentation entitled “Strategic ideas for Malawi to attract finance for clean cooking”, senior researcher Karen Olsen gave a recorded presentation in support of transformational change to clean cooking technologies and practices, linked to relevant COP26 outcomes including new strategic opportunities to attract climate and carbon finance based on aligned SDG-NDC goals, gender and digital MRV/transparency transformation.
The presentation was given to national stakeholders in Malawi, at a Conference in Lilongwe on “Pathways to Clean Cooking 2050” hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change.
Need to align NDCs and SDGs
Almost 70 countries have included household energy or clean cooking related goals in their revised Nationally Determined Contributions, including Malawi.
The key conclusions were firstly the need to align NDC and SDG goals and impact assessment for net-zero and sustainable development, at the national level, with the global goals in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda. Secondly, the need and opportunity to attract climate finance to build institutional capacity for MRV/transparency to collect and analyse data for impact assessment of NDC implementation. And finally, on opportunities to attract carbon finance for clean cooking policies and programmes at scale, designed to meet NDC national goals.
More broadly, there also exist opportunities to converge access to clean cooking with the electrification agenda. Specifically by accelerating the uptake of electric-cooking technologies that are gaining ground in Africa due to the rapidly decreasing cost of highly efficient technologies, combined with innovative business and financing models.
These technology and policy trends reveal the need and opportunity for Governments to develop project proposals for public and private climate financing (GCF, GEF and AfDB), aimed at creating or expanding markets for efficient biomass and non-biomass cooking technologies, anchored in NDC and SDG7 targets and ambitions.
UNEP-CCC supports partner countries on this agenda as a member of the Household Energy Technical Working Group of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), also hosted by UNEP.