Dymphna van der Lans
CEO, Clean Cooking Alliance

What energy solutions have you or your company been working on?

The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) works with a global network of partners to build an inclusive industry that makes clean cooking accessible to the three billion people who live each day without it. Established in 2010, CCA is driving consumer demand, mobilizing investment to build a pipeline of scalable businesses, and fostering an enabling environment that allows the sector to thrive.

In 2020, CCA launched the Cooking Industry Catalyst, a program to demonstrate the clean cooking sector’s opportunity for commercial viability and impact at scale. The Catalyst program includes a venture portfolio of 33 companies operating in 14 countries, which receive a broad range of specialized support from CCA to help solidify their commercial viability, enhance their investment-readiness, and facilitate access to growth capital.

Last year, CCA also helped secure commitments of more than US$16 million from the European Commission and the African Development Bank for the new Spark+ Africa Fund, a pioneering sector focused investment facility to scale up clean cooking solutions in Africa. Spark+ Africa is an ecosystem fund—its pipeline targets not only clean cooking companies, but also enterprises from other sectors that are relevant to the production, financing, and delivery of clean cooking solutions, including off-grid solar companies and microfinance institutions. Targeting a total fund size of US$50–US$70 million, the Fund is being implemented together with Enabling Qapital, a Swiss asset management firm, and is expected to launch later this year.

This work is critical because even though investment in clean cooking companies has increased in recent years, it still falls significantly short of the annual requirement to achieve universal access by 2030.

Why is the High-level Dialogue on Energy important at this time?

With fewer than 10 years until we reach 2030, the world remains far off track to meet SDG 7. Approximately one-third of the world’s population—2.8 billion people—still lack access to clean cooking solutions, costing trillions of dollars a year in damage to health, the climate, and local economies. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse progress and further exacerbate inequalities. To accelerate progress, the sector urgently needs increased commitment and coordination. The High-level Dialogue on Energy and COP26 give world leaders an opportunity to make momentous progress on climate protection, health, the environment, and women’s empowerment if they include ambitious Energy Compacts on clean cooking.

Can you give a preview of what commitments you might include in a potential Energy Compact by your company?

The Clean Cooking Alliance is working with partners to develop several multi-stakeholder Energy Compacts in areas urgently needed to accelerate clean cooking. These include ensuring that ambitious targets and plans for clean cooking are embedded in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on climate change; establishing dedicated and resourced national delivery units to support implementation of clean cooking programs; and creating a results-based financing (RBF) facility that is dedicated to supporting and scaling clean cooking projects