The first ever high-level summit focused on providing clean cooking access to the 1 billion people in Africa who currently lack it recently took place in Paris. Organised by the IEA and our partners, it delivered a breakthrough financial commitment for addressing one of the world’s most persistent and deep-seated inequalities.

Co-chaired by President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol and African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi A. Adesina, the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa mobilised $2.2 billion in financial pledges from governments and the private sector. Close to 60 countries took part in the Summit, with more than 1,000 delegates attending. President Emmanuel Macron of France also hosted a special session for heads of state and other leaders at the Elysée Palace, including President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo, Executive Vice President Maroš Šefčovič of the European Commission, and Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization.

The Summit marked the first time that such a large amount has been dedicated to clean cooking access at a single gathering, with the potential to make 2024 a turning point on an issue that has been overlooked for too long. The pledges made at the Summit come on top of other recent commitments including that of the African Development Bank at COP28 in Dubai.

Lack of access to clean cooking affects over 2 billion people worldwide. Many of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, where cooking with charcoal, wood, agricultural waste and animal dung, which produces toxic fumes, is the second leading cause of premature death. Women and children account for most of the lives lost. Opportunities for education, employment and independence are also limited because women instead spend hours each day collecting materials for fuel.

Our Agency will continue to make clean cooking a priority. At the Summit, our Executive Director emphasised that the IEA will work to both track progress on the pledges and marshal additional resources to build further momentum does not slow.

 
Find out more about the outcomes of the Summit in our news article, and explore key moments in our new video. Highlights from each session can be found in the Chairs’ Summary. At the Summit, more than 100 countries, international institutions, companies and civil society organisations also endorsed The Clean Cooking Declaration, pledging to make the issue a priority and enhancing efforts toward achieving universal access for all. And be sure to revisit our video series on what a lack of clean cooking access means for women across Africa.

Last week, we held our 9th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency in Nairobi, Kenya, where governments from around the world gathered to discuss how to deliver on their commitment at COP28 to double energy efficiency progress this decade. IEA data and analysis show that despite stronger government action to boost energy efficiency in recent years, faster action is needed.

Our Global Conference, co-hosted by Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary of Energy and Petroleum Davis Chirchir and Dr Birol, brought over 500 participants to the Kenyan capital from close to 70 countries. It is the first such IEA conference to be held in Africa, a sign of our deepening engagement with governments on the continent in recent years. Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua spoke alongside our Executive Director at the opening session.

The focus of the event was the doubling goal, which nearly 200 countries agreed to at COP28 in Dubai. Achieving it would mean improving the energy efficiency of the global economy by over 4% on average every year to 2030. Our analysis shows this to be a key milestone for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C by the middle of this century while supporting secure, affordable and fair energy transitions.

However, recent data reveals that the annual rate of efficiency improvement globally slowed from 2% in 2022 to just over 1% in 2023. Progress has been held back by a range of factors including last year’s record high temperatures, which drove up demand for air conditioning in warmer regions.

Find out more in our news item on the Conference and read the Chairs’ Statement in full here. It's also worth spending some time with our 2024 Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit, which includes practical policy measures for governments so they can make doubling a reality.

Pressure eased in 2023 on the market for minerals that go into electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy technologies, as supply outpaced surging demand. But our new report finds that major additional investments are still needed to meet the world’s energy and climate objectives.

The Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024 updates the inaugural review of the market that we published last year and offers new projections for the supply and demand of important energy transition minerals, such as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements. The new report finds that the prices of critical minerals fell sharply in 2023, returning to levels last seen before the pandemic. With demand growth remaining robust, these declines were mostly driven by a strong increase in global supply.

While lower prices for critical minerals have been good news for consumers and affordability, they have also provided a headwind for new investment. In 2023, investment in critical minerals mining grew by 10% and exploration spending rose by 15% – still healthy, but slower than in 2022.

This trend is important – especially given that the report notes that today’s well-supplied market may not be a good guide for the future. Demand for critical minerals continues to grow strongly in all IEA scenarios, driven by the deployment of clean energy technologies.

Read our news article on the key findings, explore the full report, and go deeper into the numbers with our updated critical minerals data explorer.

Together with the COP29 Presidency of Azerbaijan, and in close partnership with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), we recently launched a new series of High-Level Energy Transition Dialogues ahead of the COP29 climate change conference that takes place in Baku in November.

The first COP29 High-Level Dialogue – co-chaired by COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev and our Executive Director – gathered over 70 energy and climate leaders from across the world at our headquarters in Paris, including UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell; African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Amani Abou-Zeid; Germany’s State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action Jennifer Morgan; and Ireland’s Minister for Transport, Climate, Environment & Communications Eamon Ryan – as well as Malawi's Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola; Sierra Leone’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jiwoh Abdulai; Togo’s Minister for Energy and Mines Mila Aziablé; Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu; Türkiye’s Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Fatma Varank; COP24 President Michał Kurtyka and COP26 President Alok Sharma.

In their exchanges, participants focused on how to implement the energy outcomes from COP28 – including the 2030 commitments to triple global renewable power capacity, double energy efficiency improvements, substantially reduce methane emissions, and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels – and shared what they see as the top priorities for this year with the COP29 Presidency.

Learn more in our news item on the event – and stay tuned for additional Dialogues in the coming months.

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan recently commended the contributions of our Agency to the agreement reached at COP28 in Dubai. He presented our Executive Director with the First Class Order of Zayed II, the UAE’s highest civil decoration, at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi, recognising the IEA’s tireless work to support and guide governments and other stakeholders towards achieving significant outcomes at COP28 in December.

This included co-hosting with the UAE’s COP28 Presidency a series of important High-Level Dialogues with energy and climate leaders over the course of 2023 that helped create consensus among governments in the lead-up to COP28 around pathways to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, one of the key goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The new series of dialogues this year with the COP29 Presidency builds on the success of last year’s.

At the ceremony in Abu Dhabi last week, President Sheikh Mohammed congratulated Dr Birol for bringing countries together and providing substantive input from IEA analysis to underpin the major COP28 commitments on energy, which formed a central part of what has become known as the UAE Consensus.

Several other prominent figures were also recognised for their contributions at the ceremony, including former US Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry; Denmark’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy Dan Jørgensen; Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad; and World Bank President Ajay Banga.

Read our news item on the recognition from President Sheikh Mohammed.

The latest data from the first quarter of 2024 provides further evidence that global oil demand growth is slowing this year, according to our latest Oil Market Report.

Weak deliveries, notably in Europe, shifted first-quarter demand among advanced economies into contraction, according to the May report. We now expect global oil demand to rise by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2024, compared with growth of 2.3 million barrels per day in 2023.

Despite the slowing demand growth and increases in global oil supply, led by the Americas, continued output cuts by the OPEC+ group could tighten the market this year. Next year, the market looks more balanced overall. Even if OPEC+ voluntary production cuts were to stay in place, global oil supply could jump by 1.8 million barrels per day compared with this year’s more modest annual increase of 580,000 barrels per day.

Read the highlights and overview from our May Oil Market Report.

Our Deputy Executive Director Mary Burce Warlick recently led an IEA delegation to Bali, Indonesia, to participate in the Clean Energy Ministerial Senior Officials’ Meeting and Mission Innovation Annual Gathering. Ambassador Warlick delivered remarks at the opening session, underscoring the need for a wide range of clean energy technologies to reach net zero emissions and the key role of international cooperation in supporting these efforts. She also spoke at special event on Southeast Asia's energy transitions and met with Indonesian Ministry of Energy Secretary-General Dadan Kusdiana, as well as Mariana Especie, Special Advisor to Brazil's Minister of Mines and Energy Alexandre Silveira.

Our new commentary looks at how regional cooperation is key to transforming the North Sea into a powerhouse for the production of low-emissions hydrogen. The region has vast untapped renewable energy and carbon storage potential, in addition to well-established trade infrastructure. But to tap into these benefits, which could be a boon for the low-emissions hydrogen sector, countries in Northwest Europe must work together. Learn more in the commentary.

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