TANZANIA: EXPERTS are optimistic about President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s visit to Paris, France to co-chair the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, saying it is a vital step in stepping up the implementation of the National Clean Energy Strategy.
Dr Samia will tomorrow co-chair the summit, organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA), alongside other collaborators, including Norway’s Prime Minister Mr Jonas Store and the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Mr Akinwumi Adesina.
The summit is centered on three core objectives, namely elevating cooking on the global agenda, mobilising a broader coalition to harness clean cooking energy, developing a roadmap around policies and carbon markets, as well as mobilising financial commitments for clean cooking.
Speaking ahead of the high-profile meeting, former Energy and Minerals Minister, Professor Sospeter Muhongo, who serves as Musoma Rural Member of Parliament, said that by chairing the summit, Tanzania will advance its interest in raising funds to implement the strategy.
Under the 10-year strategy worth 4.6 tri/- spanning from 2024 to 2034, Tanzania aims to reach 80 per cent clean energy use from the current 10 per cent. Prof Muhongo appreciated the strategy, saying it was in line with the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which target realising zero carbon emissions by 2030 and ensuring all people in the world have access to clean and affordable energy.
“I believe all nations in the world will uphold Tanzania’s tireless efforts to transition to clean cooking by considering the fact that the transformative strategy is already on the global agenda bound by the SDGs,” Prof Muhongo said.
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He noted that many global super economies, including industrialised nations, are eager to support clean cooking efforts. Prof Muhongo said the summit acts as a platform for catalysing investments in required renewable energy infrastructures and technologies.
“We expect nations to invest in Tanzania as well as other African countries and invest in solar energy, wind energy, geothermal, tide, and wave energy.
We foresee critical investments to realise the global SDGs and the National Clean Cooking Strategy in the country and Africa at large,” Prof Muhongo told the ‘Daily News.’ He said more emphasis should be placed on the infrastructures that will harvest clean energy and supply them to consumers, as energy efficiency necessitates intensive investments in production, distribution and storage.
Detailing the significance of clean cooking, Prof Muhongo said green cooking will upgrade the welfare of the family institution, which carries the most burden, including respiratory diseases like Tuberculosis (TB) due to the use of toxic cooking energy.
Findings show that the use of unclean energy poses short-term and longterm diverse effects on human beings, including flu, coughing, eye reddening and lung diseases, as people inhale toxic fumes during cooking.
He said the use of clean cooking energy will safeguard trees, which have long been cut for firewood and charcoal, thus enhancing environmental conservation.
However, Prof Muhongo noted that worldwide implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals has been undermined by Covid-19, geopolitical tensions and wars, as well as the persistent effects of climate change, including floods, which diminish global financing for clean cooking.
Economist Dr Isaac Safari from the Saint Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT), said the president’s role at the summit will elevate Tanzania’s visibility on the global stage as a champion of clean cooking.
Dr Safari believes that the country is poised to attract potential development partners and investors in the area of clean cooking who will bring financial resources, technologies, and set up businesses in the entire value chain of green energy, including gases and electricity.
He is adamant that the effective implementation of the National Clean Cooking Energy Strategy will uplift citizens’ living standards and finally enable the country to achieve middleincome status.
“The strategy, upon realisation, will act as a clear indication of improvement in citizens’ livelihoods, which has a profound impact on both per capita and GDP at large. At the end of the day, every citizen should be able to access clean cooking energy and feel its benefits,” Dr Safari said.
He said clean cooking energy has a significant contribution to environmental conservation, which has experienced deterioration due to, among other things, prolonged use of unclean energy, including firewood and charcoal, which result in deforestation and desertification.
Currently, the world faces the effects of climate change, including floods, heatwaves, and droughts, which collectively threaten human existence and economic growth at large.
He said as Tanzania heads towards clean cooking energy, the government and development stakeholders, through community mobilisation and education, should change citizens’ mindsets by enabling them to familiarise themselves with the benefits of clean cooking.
Development Analyst, Professor Kitojo Wetengere, from the University of Arusha, said it is now the right time for the country to get rid of firewood in cooking by replacing it with clean cooking, including gases, which are available but demanding exploitation.
Prof Wetengere called upon the country to integrate other alternative sources of energy, including biogas. He said the use of clean cooking energy will save hours spent by women and men in Africa and Tanzania, in particular, in search of firewood and charcoal, thus boosting productivity and economic growth.
Tanzania’s participation in this summit comes after a successful launch of its initiative dubbed the African Women Clean Cooking Programme during COP 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which was held in December 2023.
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