Date: 2014-11-24

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment & Ecology, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki has joined Former US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton to raise about $500m comprising of $286m in grants, $127m in investments and several millions in guarantees for the global clean cooking sector during the Cookstoves Future Summit’s inaugural commitment roundtable last weekend. The aim of the fund raising is to accelerate market-based clean cooking solutions through targeted investment entrepreneur support, and capacity building to transform the way the world cooks.

Emphasis was laid on continuous elevation of  global awareness of the issue of household air pollution, the benefits of clean cookstoves and fuels, mark the transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the Alliance's strategic roadmap, and mobilize $500m in grant and financial resources for the sector for the period 2015-2017. 

The Summit convened more than 400 stakeholders from around the world to reflect on the strong progress made in Phase 1 and the key areas of intervention and focus as the Alliance and its partners go to scale in Phase 2. Over 70 commitment makers came to support the sector during Phase 2, covering several areas including: humanitarian, policy and advocacy, fuels, standards and testing, capitalization and guarantees, enterprise capacity building and innovation, health research, environment and climate research, awareness and behavioural change, affordability and access, as well as monitoring and evaluation.​

Saraki, who is a member of the Leadership Council of the Alliance and the highest political figure leading this cause in Nigeria addressed press men during the summit that though the issue has started pulling traction because of its high social, environmental and economic returns, alot however still needs to be done; given the intensity of Household Air Pollution (HAP) in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The Senator stated that in Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya alone, the Global Alliance’s 2013 report stated that 219 million people are affected by household air pollution (HAP), which causes at least 111,100 deaths each year in these countries. This number is undoubtedly higher across the African continent. Inefficient and dangerous cooking causes deforestation and contributes to 21% of global black carbon emissions. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is working tirelessly to bring this issue to the forefront of debate, and mobilizing resources to achieve  100 by 2020 goal into action. 

Nonetheless, Senator Saraki believes that many African nations continue to face similar challenges in overcoming the barriers that currently impede the proliferation of clean cookstoves and fuels across the continent. He therefore suggested a Pan-African Strategy through the development of a regional solution that can rapidly scale up the provision of clean cookstoves and fuels across the African continent. Senator Saraki therefore calls on African Leaders to devote the necessary political energy and resources to developing a Pan-African Clean Cookstoves Strategy that is specific to our peculiarities with a view to stopping deaths from cookstoves smoke, halt deforestation, decelerate black carbon emissions and improve access to modern cooking energy.

The Honorable Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Laraba Mallam announced a 1 billion naira annual commitment (or app. $6.5m) to the clean cooking sector between  2015 - 2017. She stated that the Federal Government of Nigeria will develop a National Strategy and Policy for clean cooking in 2015 to support our national target of 20 million cookstoves adoption by year 2020. She further stated that petrol and kerosene subsidies will be re-invested to further subsidize clean cooking technologies and build markets. The National Assembly through Senator Bukola Saraki has further pledged to initiate appropriate legislation to support the formal institutionalization of structures that can help Nigeria achieve her 20 million by 2020 target and promised to make adequate budgetary appropriation to the sector.

enator Saraki has appealed to all stakeholders to join in this good cause of health and environmental friendliness by sustainable energy implementation, thereby improving livelihood and reducing global emission. State-wide wareness needs to be created especially in the grassroots concerning the dangers of household air pollution through awareness campaigns, sensitization programs and timely provision of clean cookstoves. He urged the all factions of our government need to put in work to ensure that these problems being faced are eliminated completely. 

Saraki emphasised the need for our government to enact business friendly policies to allow investment opportunities from the private sector. In the same light, government needs to invest in LPG gas infrastructure for a stepwise but incremental switch to cooking gas. He further concluded by supporting the minister's proposition of reinvesting realized funds from the petroleum subsidy into the clean cookstoves initiative to strengthen the Alliance's efforts.