Financing the transition to clean fuels and technology for cooking in developing countries

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🔬研究者:Provides a comprehensive qualitative framework for studying clean cooking finance and a novel theory of change.

🏢実務担当者:Offers actionable recommendations for DFIs and public banks to align financial products with clean cooking market needs.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights needed reforms in development finance institutions and the potential of green state investment banks for universal energy access.

In 2015, the international community through Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) articulated its ambition to achieve access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. Universal access to clean fuels and technology for cooking is a fundamental pillar of SDG7 and is linked to the achievement of several other SDGs. However, there remains a large clean cooking access deficit relative to the SDG7 target, especially in developing countries. An estimated 2.1 billion people globally lived in cooking poverty in 2022, and the resulting negative health, gender and climate externalities cost society USD 2.4 trillion annually.Multiple barriers exist to the widespread deployment and sustained adoption of clean cooking solutions. These relate to consumers, policy and regulation, market development, data, and finance. Financing barriers consistently rank among the greatest obstacles to reducing cooking poverty but actual finance flows fall short of all published projections of those required to achieve SDG7’s universal access target.The overall aim of this research is to elucidate the challenges of financing a transition to universal access to clean fuels and technology for cooking and make policy recommendations to address them. To date, limited academic attention has been given to the modalities of funding a clean cooking transition at scale. This creates a critical research gap that this thesis aims to address by examining finance’s role as a lever of change. The magnitude of the access challenge means that systems-level financing reform is required, and that is the approach taken here.The thesis responds to four research questions:1. Research Question 1: What is finance’s role as an enabler of sustainable clean cooking markets and to what extent does the current volume and type of finance meet market needs?2. Research Question 2: What role should development finance institutions (DFI) play in building sustainable clean cooking markets and what characterises DFIs’ delivery of climate and development finance for clean cooking?3. Research Question 3: What value exists in creating a specialised public bank, modelled on green state investment banks, to address the clean cooking investment gap?4. Research Question 4: How can the financial sector be leveraged to support a gender-responsive clean cooking transition?Methodologically, a qualitative approach is adopted that relies on semi-structured, expert interviews for primary data collection. This method is underpinned by significant literature review and analysis, to provide a sound theoretical basis for the qualitative inquiry. Based on available information, the interview processes undertaken for this thesis incorporate the largest interviewee sample yet assembled to inform academic research on climate and development finance for clean cooking, the first to inform an academic study of clean cooking and green state investment banks, and one of few efforts to date to explore the nexus of clean cooking, finance and gender.This thesis offers new theoretical and practical insights relating to financing a clean cooking transition at scale. The research builds on existing finance tracking efforts to identify financing gaps through the innovation cycle of companies that provide solutions and to highlight public banks’ role in mitigating risk for the aggregate funding group. It examines DFIs as public banks with significant influence in clean cooking markets and emphasises opportunities for institutional reform to better align their risk appetite, financial solutions and operations with market needs. Drawing on insights from the primary data collection, the thesis posits a novel theory of change for clean cooking finance. The thesis then introduces green state investment banks into the academic discourse on clean cooking by examining how their institutional funding model could be applied to public banks in clean cooking markets. Research findings identify notable similarities between the roles that market participants want public banks to play, and those historically undertaken by green banks. Lastly, the thesis explores the nexus of clean cooking, gender and finance in the context of women’s experience of cooking poverty and associated structural inequalities. It recommends that public banks implement certain operational reforms and external measures to foster a more gender-responsive clean cooking transition.To achieve universal clean cooking access, a critical challenge lies in marshalling sufficient, appropriate and affordable finance to support sustained adoption of solutions in the field. It is hoped that this thesis’ findings and recommendations, which are informed by data collected from many of the clean cooking sector’s most experienced and knowledgeable practitioners, will serve as a valuable resource for policymakers and funders. The thesis also provides a basis for future research efforts to better understand how financiers can help drive a clean cooking transition at speed and scale.

• openaire https://doi.org/10.14264/ed7897efirst seen 2026-05-14 21:32:54