• Uganda launches Clean Cooking Unit to boost energy transition
• Aims for universal clean cooking access by 2040
• Only 15% currently have access; major health, climate impact
  

The Ugandan government launched a “Clean Cooking Unit” on Monday, Oct. 20, a new body created to coordinate policy and financing for Uganda’s shift to cleaner cooking solutions.  The announcement came during the 2025 Renewable Energy Conference and Expo in Kampala.

The initiative is part of a project backed by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), with technical support from the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) program, and the National Renewable Energy Platform (NREP). It aims to strengthen coordination, attract investment, and speed up universal access to clean cooking by 2040.

Clean cooking remains one of Uganda’s major energy, environmental, and social challenges. According to the 2023 Energy Transition Plan by the government and the International Energy Agency (IEA), only 15% of Ugandans had access to clean cooking technologies. The lack of access drives air pollution, deforestation, health problems, and lost time, especially for women who spend hours each day gathering firewood.

The 2023 plan called for a 10% annual increase in clean cooking access to achieve full coverage by 2030. Proposed transition options include improved cookstoves, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and electric cooking, with electricity expected to expand as the national grid grows. The required investment was estimated at $100 million per year, 13 times the then-current level.

Uganda’s situation reflects a wider trend across Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 1 billion people still lack access to clean cooking, according to the IEA. Almost half of them live in five countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda. While regional access rose from 8% to over 15% between 2010 and 2022, population growth has offset much of the progress, mirroring trends in electricity access.

The lack of clean cooking has become a growing global development concern. At the Clean Cooking Summit co-hosted by the IEA and UNESCO in May 2024, governments and private-sector partners pledged $2.2 billion to fund national programs and strengthen local supply chains. The pledges highlight growing recognition that without universal access to clean cooking, some sustainable development goals will stay out of reach.

For Uganda, the priority now is to attract the investment needed to transform household life sustainably while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and easing pressure on the country’s forests.

Abdoullah Diop