Background

Around 1.58 billion people in Asia and the Pacific or 34.5 per cent of the region’s population in 2019 still relied on highly polluting and harmful cooking solutions. These cooking practices are inefficient and produce high levels of household air pollution with a range of health-damaging pollutants. Close to 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to household air pollution from inefficient cooking practices using polluting stoves paired with solid fuels and kerosene. Urgent action must therefore be taken to achieve universal access to clean cooking. This necessary action will realize 3 important sustainable goals – that of affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services for all (SDG 7), healthy lives and well-being for all (SDG 3) and readiness to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13).

This workshop will deliberate on the critical issues confronting access to clean cooking. Recognizing the challenges at hand, what are the current market trends and appropriate technologies and approaches being implemented to address these challenges? Presentations will focus on case studies, successful programs and replicable projects that demonstrate suitable solutions to the adoption of clean cooking technologies. The session will also discuss what other ingredients are necessary to further speed-up the uptake and scale up of clean cooking access in Asia and the Pacific region.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the DDW are the following:

  1. To discuss the current state of access to clean cooking, and its significance to achieving the global sustainable development agenda; spotlighting the broader co-benefits of clean cooking.
  2. To share appropriate innovative clean cooking solutions and best practices – integrated energy access planning for clean cooking, innovative clean cooking technologies and business models that being implemented or have been successfully implemented and are replicable in Asia and the Pacific region.
  3. To present the opportunities for scaling up the deployment of clean cooking solutions and the various initiatives being undertaken by government, private and development organizations to accelerate the access to clean cooking.

Agenda

Time (Manila) Activities
2:00 - 3:15 p.m. Opening Session
Moderator: Mikael Melin, SEforAll
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Kee-Yung Nam, ADB
Scene Setter: Costs and Benefits of Transitioning to Clean Cooking
The opening presentation will provide a broad stroke perspective on the benefits of transitioning to clean cooking with highlights of country specific case studies.

  • Dr. Yabei Zhang, senior energy specialist in the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), Lead of the Clean Cooking Fund.
Session 1: Clean cooking market trends and solutions: best practices on sustainable business models and technologies
The session will discuss innovative technologies, best practices and selected business models to scale up and meet the increasing market opportunities for clean cooking.

  • Clean Cooking Industry Snapshot, incl. spotlight on carbon finance. Speaker: Ronan Ferguson, Senior Manager, Private Sector & Investments, Clean Cooking Alliance
  • Solving the clean cooking challenge, promising business models on ecooking. Speaker: Dr Simon Batchelor, Director of Gamos and Research Fellow at Loughborough University and Research Coordinator for the UK Aid funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme
  • Data connectivity/innovation in electric cooking - enabling paygo, carbon credits and grid load management. Speaker: Ben Jeffreys, CEO, ATEC
Session 2: Stepping up Efforts to Clean Energy Cooking Access
This session will present efforts to transition to clean cooking fuels and approaches to scale up the deployment of clean cooking solutions.

  • Unlocking Scale in Clean Cooking: Data for decision making and an integrated approach to energy access planning, Speaker: Nicolina Lindblad, Energy Planning Specialist, SEforALL
3:15 - 3:30 p.m. Panel Discussion and Q&A

  • Mikael Melin, SEforALL (Moderator)
  • Closing Remarks

    About the Organizer

    Asian Development Bank (ADB):

    The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. It assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.

    Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL)

    Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) an international organization that works in partnership with the United Nations and leaders in government, the private sector, financial institutions, civil society and philanthropies to drive faster action towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) – access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 – in line with the Paris Agreement on climate. We work to ensure a clean energy transition that leaves no one behind and brings new opportunities for everyone to fulfil their potential. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the Sustainable Energy for All initiative in 2011. Now an independent organization, we maintain close links with the UN, including through a relationship agreement, partnerships with UN agencies and with our CEO acting as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy.Our staff is based at our headquarters in Vienna, Austria and at our satellite offices in Washington, DC, and New York, United States. Governance is provided by the SEforALL Administrative Board and Funders' Council.

    Point of Contacts

    Kee-Yung Nam
    ADB
    Email

    Mikael Melin
    SEforAll
    Email