Clean Cooking Investments: Data Gaps and Priorities for SDG7 Progress

Why It Matters

Accurate investment data enable donors and governments to allocate scarce resources efficiently, accelerating progress toward universal clean cooking and the broader SDG 7 agenda.

Key Takeaways

• Finance gaps hinder universal clean cooking access by 2030.
• Data scarcity limits tracking of South‑global clean‑cooking investments.
• LPG receives 65% of reported clean‑cooking financing so far.
• Governments prioritize concessional finance and strong policies for investors.
• Iterative methodology yields possible, probable, and proven investment estimates.

Summary

The IRENA webinar highlighted the urgent need to close data gaps in clean‑cooking financing to meet SDG 7’s universal‑access target. While a range of technologies—from induction cookers to biogas—are now available, 2.1 billion people still lack clean cooking solutions, and political commitments have not translated into measurable progress. The agency’s new report introduced a three‑tiered methodology—possible, probable, and proven—to estimate investment flows, revealing that roughly 65 % of disclosed funds go to LPG and that governments overwhelmingly seek concessional finance and robust policy frameworks. Challenges include ambiguous investment boundaries, a fragmented financing ecosystem, and limited data availability from both public and private sources. Caroline Oeng explained that the survey achieved a 23 % response rate from 123 target countries—double the industry norm—and that supplemental OECD data added an extra US$8 million to the investment estimate. Uganda is now piloting a clean‑cooking investment prospectus that will feed real‑time data into a platform for potential investors. The findings underscore that reliable, granular data are essential for directing scarce resources, attracting private capital, and designing policies that accelerate clean‑cooking adoption before the 2030 deadline.

Original Description

Clean cooking investment is critical to achieving SDG 7, yet the data needed to guide effective capital deployment remains fragmented and incomplete. Closing these gaps across domestic, private sector, and philanthropic flows is essential to ensure limited funds reach the right enterprises through the right instruments.

Drawing on IRENA's first global effort to track clean cooking investments across Global South governments, this webinar examined the methodological challenges and opportunities uncovered in that process, highlighting priorities for aligning definitions, strengthening data quality, and fostering collaboration among governments, donors, investors, and data agencies to accelerate clean cooking finance.

For more information: https://www.irena.org/Events/2026/May/Clean-Cooking-Investments-Data-gaps-and-priorities-for-SDG7-progress