LPG and Africa’s Clean Cooking Transition By James Rockall, CEO & Managing Director, WLGA

Access to clean cooking remains one of the most overlooked development challenges of our time, yet its impacts are visible in every corner of Sub-Saharan Africa. Today, more than 900 million Africans still rely on wood, charcoal, kerosene and agricultural waste to prepare their daily meals. The result is a profound human crisis: almost one million premature deaths in Africa each year from household air pollution, severe deforestation, entrenched gender inequality, and an economic drag that affects entire nations. Despite its scale, clean cooking has long remained at the margins of energy and climate policy. That is beginning to change, and it must continue with urgency and commitment.

A major step forward came with the G20’s Closing the Clean Cooking Gap Voluntary Infrastructure Investment Action Plan, adopted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in October 2025. For the first time, the world’s largest economies formally recognised clean cooking as a core issue for health, gender equality, climate mitigation, and sustainable development. Earlier that same year, the International Energy Agency’s inaugural Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa mobilised African governments, development banks, international oil and gas companies, and civil society. Both moments converged on a central conclusion: among the available clean cooking options, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stands out as the most immediate, scalable, and effective solution capable of matching the scale of Africa’s needs.

LPG’s role is often misunderstood in global debates. Its relevance in Sub-Saharan Africa does not lie in competing with the long-term potential of solar, wind, and electrification. It lies in replacing the dangerous present reality of smoky open fires, rudimentary stoves, and charcoal burners that have barely changed for generations. Electrification will continue to expand across the continent, but even under optimistic scenarios it will not provide universal, reliable access to modern cooking energy in the short term. LPG is available today, abundant in global markets, easily transportable, and deployable using existing logistics networks. The WLGA’s LPG Road Map for Africa underscores this potential, showing that LPG has been responsible for 70% of all clean cooking access gained worldwide since 2010 - a remarkable indication of what works at scale.

The health case for expanding LPG is overwhelming. Household air pollution claims an estimated 3.2 million lives every year, including almost a quarter of a million young children. Women and children in Africa account for around 60% of premature deaths linked to inhaling smoke from traditional fuels. Switching to LPG can reduce indoor particulate pollution by up to 98%, delivering an immediate improvement in air quality and dramatically lowering exposure to deadly smoke. The public health benefits alone justify making LPG expansion a national political priority.

The gender dimension is equally compelling. For millions of women and girls, cooking is only part of the burden; collecting firewood often consumes hours each day. This time poverty reinforces gender inequality, limits education, reduces income opportunities, and increases exposure to physical risks. Clean cooking is one of the most powerful gender-equality interventions available. LPG frees time, improves safety, and enables women to participate more fully in school, work, and entrepreneurship. Few other energy interventions deliver such immediate human impacts.

Environmental benefits are also substantial. Deforestation driven by firewood and charcoal use continues to accelerate across Africa, with severe consequences for biodiversity, soil health, and local climate resilience. The LPG Roadmap for Africa shows that providing LPG access to just half of Sub-Saharan Africa could save more than 260 million trees each year, roughly three times the area of Lagos. LPG combustion emits almost no black carbon, the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. Increasing access to LPG to 25 kilograms per capita would reduce black carbon emissions by the equivalent of 117 million tonnes of CO₂ each year, nearly offsetting Nigeria’s annual emissions. At a time when climate finance is scarce, clean cooking represents one of the most cost-effective mitigation opportunities available globally.

International experience shows what is possible. India’s transformation from 62% LPG penetration in 2016 to near-universal coverage today marks one of the fastest clean-energy transitions in history. It was enabled by targeted subsidies, strong regulation, effective safety systems, and sustained public communication. Africa has the potential to replicate and adapt this success, especially in high-opportunity markets such as Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Togo, where political commitment, infrastructure development, and market reforms are already advancing.

The G20 Action Plan presents a clear framework for African governments and partners to accelerate progress. It calls for countries to elevate clean cooking to a national priority; create enabling and evidence-based policy environments; mobilise concessional financing and carbon-market revenues; strengthen market and industry development; and close data and knowledge gaps through regional cooperation, capacity-building and transparent tracking. These pillars align closely with WLGA’s recommendations and with the work of the Cooking for Life Africa Task Force, which brings together companies committed to expanding LPG access at scale. Success will require investment in storage and filling plants, improvements in rural transportation networks, adoption and enforcement of the Cylinder Recirculation Model to ensure safety, and targeted fiscal policies that protect vulnerable households while stimulating market growth.

Africa’s clean cooking transition will shape health, welfare, environmental stability, and economic opportunity for decades to come. LPG is not the only solution, nor is it presented as a panacea. But it is the only immediately scalable solution that can address the magnitude of the crisis today. The policy frameworks exist, the global momentum is real, and the development case is indisputable. What is needed now is rapid and coordinated implementation across governments, industry, and development partners.

If we seize this moment, millions of African families will breathe cleaner air, forests will recover, women will reclaim time and opportunity, and communities will thrive. Clean cooking can be among the greatest development successes of the coming decade, but only if we act. LPG is ready now, and the evidence is clear. The responsibility to turn this opportunity into reality lies with all of us.

For more on LPG as a cooking fuel: https://www.worldliquidgas.org/key-focus-areas/cooking/
For more on LPG’s Role in the Energy Transition: https://online.fliphtml5.com/addge/rihc/#p=1