Year of publication 2014

Increasing investment in the clean cooking sector is critical to realizing the Alliance’s goal of 100 million households adopting cleaner and more efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. In the sector report Igniting Change: A Strategy for Universal Adoption of Clean Cookstoves and Fuels, stakeholders cited access to finance as the primary barrier for the scaling up of clean cooking technologies globally. Yet, despite decades of work by hundreds of organizations active in the sector to increase adoption of clean cooking solutions, the market remains under-developed and highly fragmented. The majority of enterprises across the cookstove and fuels value chain are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Due to the fragmented nature of the sector, many players are attempting to work across the entire value chain, stretching resources rather than focusing in an area that leverages their strengths. Those that do try to specialize often find it difficult to identify the right partners. Although there have been investments in clean cooking enterprises, and interest in the sector continues to grow among early stage impact investors, the lack of financing at scale to the sector remains high.