00:0038 OECD countries sent key ministers to an important meeting in Paris to discuss energy security.
00:06This gathering took place at the International Energy Agency.
00:09One major issue is that of energy dependence.
00:11In the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow,
00:15energy prices across the board have risen.
00:17Many are warning, though, against becoming too reliant on American supplies
00:21and they're urging more diversity as Russia's gas will be phased out by next year.
00:26Easier said than done, perhaps.
00:27Though Austria, for one, is looking at the African gas market to create its own diversity.
00:34Well, in Africa, clean cooking is an issue of great concern.
00:37With a billion people relying on wood and charcoal to cook their food each day,
00:41there's a disproportionate number of deaths due to fine particle air pollution.
00:45Literally, that's breathing in the smoke from the cooking fire.
00:48Here to talk more about what can be done and the challenges ahead of trying to do that
00:52is Andy Heshkovitz, who's CEO of Mission 300 Accelerator.
00:55Andy, thank you for being with us.
00:57What is the scale of this issue regarding clean cooking in Africa?
01:00How big a problem is it?
01:01Can you give us a sense of that first?
01:03So you said it, Mark.
01:04A billion people who literally every day are cooking with wood, with charcoal, with dung,
01:10breathing in smoke.
01:11Because it's not like they have these ventilated kitchens.
01:13They're these places where you're just breathing smoke all day long.
01:16And it's not just the breathing of smoke.
01:18How much time is spent every day going and gathering firewood or gathering biomass
01:22or these other things?
01:23So it's a time lost for productivity as well.
01:25And this is a problem that we're trying to address.
01:27And addressing that, of course, is manifold in terms of the problems that you face.
01:32Because there's the issue of how you replace that heating source,
01:36how you put in the infrastructure to make that happen,
01:38and, of course, giving people the wherewithal to afford to do that.
01:41It's a whole myriad of things to change.
01:43Right.
01:43And this is a place where almost everybody agrees that gas plays an important role here.
01:48A lot of people, you know, you're pushing on renewable energy.
01:51But the reality is a solar panel cannot necessarily produce heat as efficiently as gas can.
01:57And it's a lot more expensive to do that.
01:59So almost everybody agrees that developing the gas infrastructure, particularly in African countries,
02:03will go a long way to solving this issue.
02:06We're really excited to have the U.S. Secretary of Energy announce this Clean Cooking Accelerator Initiative,
02:12along with Norway.
02:13It's the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Rockefeller Foundation,
02:18the Clean Cooking Alliance, and this new entity called the Energy Corps, along with IEA.
02:23We're all going to work together to try to figure out how do you develop the infrastructure
02:27to make sure that people can cook with clean cooking gas.
02:30It is a massive challenge ahead, and you're a part of this Mission 300 Accelerator.
02:35Explain how that comes in.
02:36Yeah.
02:37So one of the things that we're doing is we're making sure that African governments themselves
02:40have the support to develop actual pipelines of deals.
02:43We take it for granted that a lot of people, you've got gas in your home, or you have electric
02:48cooking, but electricity is more readily available.
02:51And we're not ruling out electric cooking where it's available.
02:53But in places in remote areas of Africa that are really far from the electrical grid,
02:58imagine it could be 30, 40 years before the electrical grid reaches them, they're not
03:02able to cook with a small little solar panel.
03:04It just doesn't generate enough heat.
03:05So they're going to continue to use firewood and things like that.
03:08So we're trying to figure out how do you develop a supply chain to get that cooking gas out
03:13to them.
03:13And our theory is if you can get a Coca-Cola to the most remote area of the world, there's
03:18no reason you can't get cooking gas out there as well.
03:21That's a very fine way to compare it, isn't it?
03:23If you can get a product to sell out there, you can get a product that people can use.
03:28So there will be various problems to actually cross with that.
03:32I suppose one of them is getting governments on board to do this.
03:34Because clearly, I'm not suggesting all governments are the same, but there might be a system in
03:38place which is benefiting some people, and they might want to stop that happening.
03:42That might be one of the big problems to get over.
03:44No, you're right, Mark.
03:45So getting the governments on board is absolutely one of the keys.
03:48And that's one of the things that we're working on.
03:49I'm looking at embedding people within these government delivery units who are clean cooking
03:54experts because the governments, particularly a lot of the African governments, are focused
03:58on so many different issues related to health, electrification, water.
04:03And so clean cooking often sort of falls by the wayside, and we're making sure there's
04:07actual expertise there and someone who's pushing on the ground every day to make sure governments
04:12are on board, but also to identify an investable pipeline of projects to make sure that companies
04:18can succeed.
04:18What kind of projects are you talking about?
04:20Well, we're talking about everything from developing the infrastructure to produce the
04:25propane gas that people use for cooking, to projects for companies that are selling the
04:30products or selling the stoves, people who are going to be producing the tanks that get
04:36used for the cooking as well.
04:38So it's making sure the private sector is well prepared and able to sell their products in
04:42the most remote areas in African countries.
04:44What kind of a sense did you get from speaking to the U.S. Energy Secretary who was...
04:49Oh, he is passionate about clean cooking.
04:52And I first learned about this during his confirmation hearing, and someone said, you've got to come
04:56and see this.
04:57Look at this.
04:58And he's showing a book that he had written from his previous company called Bettering Human
05:02Lives, where he talked about the importance of clean cooking.
05:06This isn't a political trick for him.
05:08He is passionate about it.
05:09He started an NGO that's doing this.
05:12He's got his NGO, which he's no longer affiliated with because he's the Secretary of Energy.
05:16They're doing projects in Kenya.
05:17They're doing projects in Ghana.
05:19He is one of the greatest advocates for clean cooking.
05:21And he was very clear about it, that the Trump administration supports this effort.
05:25OK, so Chris Wright, on side, on board, and saying the right things, doing the right things.
05:30Not saying the right things, saying what he believes, which is the right thing.
05:34That's always a nice thing to hear.
05:35He's saying what he truly believes.
05:36And it's really refreshing working with him on this.
05:39He's urging, obviously, the European market to buy American.
05:42That's part of the transactional nature of the Trump administration.
05:46There's no getting away from that.
05:47So that's what he's urging there.
05:48He's not suggesting the same kind of transnational deal with Africa, is he?
05:53No, what he suggests, and I agree with this 100%, is that African countries need to take
05:58advantage of the resources that they have.
05:59And nobody should be imposing on them, just like nobody imposes on any of us what we should
06:04be doing to meet our energy needs.
06:06So for clean cooking, if a country has the resources, he's not opposed to other technologies,
06:11but often the best resource is going to be this gas infrastructure.
06:15OK, so gas infrastructure, electricity would be cleaner, would it not?
06:19It would be much cleaner.
06:19If that could happen.
06:20Yeah.
06:20But of course, the big problem is actually creating that network, isn't it, as you pointed
06:23out earlier?
06:24Exactly.
06:24Creating the distribution network, creating the supply chain, and that requires financing.
06:28And it requires probably inexpensive financing.
06:30So we want to pull in other partners from countries who can provide that cheap financing
06:34so that it makes it so that poor people can afford the gas.
06:38For now, going forward to 10 years, 20 years, how do you see things going?
06:42How do you see things improving?
06:44Yeah.
06:44I actually feel quite optimistic.
06:47So one of the things that we support at Rockefeller Foundation is this Mission 300 initiative that's
06:52working to help 300 million Africans get access to electricity by 2030.
06:56We're supporting the World Bank, African Development Bank, and the governments on this
07:00effort.
07:00And clean cooking is an important part of that.
07:02So now we're actually taking positive steps to advance that clean cooking agenda, not just
07:08the electricity access agenda.
07:10Andy, we could talk more, but sadly time is against us.
07:13Andy Huskowitz is the CEO of Mission 300 Accelerator, talking about the necessity to have clean
07:18cooking across Africa to save people's lives because it's killing how many people each year?
07:23It's 800,000 people a year.
07:26800,000 people a year because of inhaling cooking smoke, which is a terribly sad situation to consider.
07:32Andy, great to meet you.
07:32Thank you very much indeed.
07:33Good luck with the project.
07:34Thank you so much.
07:35Well worthwhile.
07:35Andy Huskowitz of Mission 300 Accelerator, clean cooking across Africa.
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