Coalition formed to bring cleaner cooking to millions of households faster and at scale

17 February 2021 - Major companies, banks and development actors have come together to help bring cleaner cooking to millions of households, faster and at scale. Members of the Coalition, called LPG4SDG7, share a commitment to helping achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7, which calls for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, through growing markets for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for clean cooking.

Four billion people, or approximately half of the world’s population, do not have access to clean cooking, according to the World Bank (September 2020). Most of them use charcoal, wood and kerosene to cook, with negative health and environmental consequences. Using LPG for cooking is the only solution in the medium term that can address this energy poverty in an economically viable way at scale and take us within reach of meeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 on energy access.

“LPG4SDG7 is a critical new platform for mobilizing private sector investments for the rapid scale up of access to clean cooking services in developing countries. Millions of lives could be saved with such creative public-private partnerships,” said the Honourable Kandeh Yumkella, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and a global champion for SDG7 and clean cooking.

Founding members of the LPG4SDG7 Coalition who have committed to align and scale up their activities to meet this humanitarian and development challenge include African Refiners Association, Bboxx, the Clean Cooking Alliance, Enabling Qapital, Envirofit, the Global LPG Partnership, PayGo Energy, PayGas, the Shell Foundation, Siemens Energy, Société Générale, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, SPARK+ Africa Fund, the World LPG Association (WLPGA) and Trafigura.

The Coalition is committed to energy solutions with low or zero carbon emissions. LPG for cooking has significant climate, health and environmental benefits over the traditional use of biomass. LPG for cooking should be considered as a transition fuel, to be replaced over time with lower or zero carbon-emitting fuels such as bioLPG.

The Coalition and its supporters will further the use of LPG for clean cooking by working with governments and other stakeholders on the enabling environment for attracting investment capital and for LPG projects. They will advocate for, mobilize resources for, and seek to facilitate and implement at large scale LPG value chain projects for, supplying LPG for clean cooking.

"When commitment, knowledge and resources of global leaders unite, we can through the use of LPG at scale deliver clean cooking and Sustainable Development Goal 7,” said Kimball Chen, Chairman, Global LPG Partnership.

The Coalition’s four initial workstreams will focus on the following:

1. Commercially viable projects – developing and agreeing standard terms of reference for commercially viable LPG projects. The cost-efficient distribution of LPG from supplier to household currently takes a long time. By standardising contract terms and by bringing together several projects into the same financing arrangements, the time it takes to develop a project can be shortened and scale achieved faster.
    
2. Blended finance – developing blended finance solutions for the LPG supply chain. Parts of the LPG supply chain, for example bottling, are often challenging to finance on commercial conditions. In these circumstances, blended finance solutions mixing concessionary development finance with private capital can be essential. Such financial arrangements are often time consuming and complicated to agree, requiring a high degree of trust amongst those involved. By developing practical and standardised frameworks for blended finance solutions for clean cooking, the LPG4SDG7 Coalition aims to achieve significantly faster provision of LPG for clean cooking.
    
3. Government good practices – advising governments on how best to develop the market for LPG for clean cooking, and on gathering and developing clear government practices and guidelines.
    
4. Communication – promoting the benefits of LPG for clean cooking.

The launch of the LPG4SDG7 Coalition took place on Wednesday 17 February 2021, bringing together the companies and organisations supporting the Coalition to share their mission to step up actions that will provide cleaner cooking solutions across the globe and at scale.

For further information visit: www.lpg4sdg7.org

ENDS

For press enquiries contact:
Jonas Moberg
Tel: +41 (76) 487 1832
Email: jonas.moberg@trafigura.com 

SUPPORTING QUOTES

“Bboxx was founded with a clear mission: to help end energy poverty. While we have made significant strides in harnessing innovative technology to expand access to clean, reliable and affordable energy, global progress on clean cooking continues to fall behind. This aspect of UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 is too often overlooked, and it is only though forging major global partnerships that true progress can be made. We are looking forward to working with partners across this Coalition to accelerate clean cooking access as we unlock potential and transform lives across the developing world.”
 

• Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and Co-Founder, Bboxx – a next generation utility

“There are many exciting efforts underway to leverage increased electrification rates for electric cooking appliances, and innovative solutions that utilize renewable fuels such as processed biomass, biofuels and biogas. That said, it is clear that the roughly half of the world’s population that currently lacks access to modern cooking solutions will not gain access anytime soon without scaling up LPG usage. We firmly believe in the role of LPG as a scalable and clean transition fuel within what we expect to be a diverse energy mix for cooking in developing countries.”
 

• Peter George, Co-Managing Partner, SPARK+ Africa – the world’s first clean cooking-focused impact investment fund

“All of us in this coalition share a belief that we must step-up our efforts in addressing global warming and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Trafigura is making significant investments in renewable energy, as part of our efforts to contribute to the energy transition to low or zero carbon-emitting fuels. Unfortunately, these are not realistic alternatives for the hundreds of millions of people who lack access to clean energy and cook using biomass, resulting in poor health, large emissions and deforestation. Through this Coalition we are doing our part to ensure that the status quo is challenged, improving the environment and the quality of life of millions of Africans.”
 

• Patricio Norris, Co-Head of LPG trading, Trafigura