President Julius Maada Bio, alongside Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella and representatives from over 60 nations, convened in Paris at the Clean Cooking Summit, where they collectively pledged over $4 billion towards providing clean cooking access for 250 million African women by 2030.

This landmark initiative seeks to significantly impact the lives of 250 million African women over the next decade. Spearheaded by luminaries such as Dr. Akinwumi Adesina of the African Development Bank, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the summit aims to revolutionize clean cooking practices for nearly one billion Africans. Ultimately, it aims to mitigate pollution-related deaths, which currently claim the lives of approximately half a million women and children annually.

President Bio, a keynote speaker at the summit, underscored the urgency of addressing the clean cooking crisis. With 2.3 billion people globally still reliant on traditional cooking methods like open fires or basic stoves, of which one in five resides in Africa, he emphasized the imperative for immediate action. Clean cooking, often overshadowed in discussions on energy access and electrification efforts, took center stage at the summit, prompting a resounding call to action for the betterment of communities worldwide.

The summit's outcomes mark a watershed moment in the pursuit of clean cooking access for nearly one billion Africans currently deprived of it, a situation exacerbating the premature deaths of approximately half a million women and children each year.

In a press release issued by the organizers, it was revealed that the Summit in Paris yielded a groundbreaking financial commitment, with governments and the private sector mobilizing US$2.2 billion in pledges to address one of the most enduring and profound inequalities worldwide—the lack of access to clean cooking facilities in Africa.

Notably, President Emmanuel Macron of France hosted a special session at the Elysée Palace for heads of state and other leaders attending the Summit, underscoring the high-level commitment to this critical cause.