COP29: UK commits £74m to expand clean cooking access for 10million people

November 15, 2024

By Samuel Ogunsona

The United Kingdom has pledged £74 million to provide clean cooking access to an additional 10 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific regions.

This initiative aims to address the alarming fact that globally, around 2.1 billion people still rely on polluting fuels like firewood and charcoal for cooking, which severely impacts the health of women and girls and damages forests.

The funding will be announced by Minister for Development Anneliese Dodds at the ongoing COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Minister said, “This package will support 10 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific to leave coal and wood cooking behind, helping the environment while also improving the health of women, girls who are so often exposed to damaging fumes from burning coal and wood.

“Nothing could be more central to UK’s own national interest than delivering progress on arresting rising temperatures. This is our chance to achieve clean and secure energy, both globally and at home, and, in doing so, drive growth for the UK”, Dodds added.

The UK Government’s Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme will receive £44 million of the clean cooking package, while the remaining £30 million will come from the Ayrton Fund, which focuses on accelerating the clean energy transition in Global South countries.

The UK remains committed to spending £1.5 billion in 2025 to support countries in building resilience to climate change impacts, tripling adaptation spend from 2019 levels, as part of its existing commitment to spend £11.6 billion in International Climate Finance between April 2021 and March 2026.