U.S. official urges IEA to prioritize energy access, announces clean cooking accelerator

Chris White Wright, introduced in the transcript as secretary of NID, urged the International Energy Agency on Tuesday to return its focus to energy access and announced a U.S.-backed "clean cooking accelerator program" to speed deployment of clean cooking fuel solutions.

"Two billion people, a quarter of humanity, don't have what we... take for granted, clean cooking fuel," Wright said, citing what he described as both a public-health and human‑liberation problem. He told attendees that about "800,000 preventable deaths a year" occur in Africa and referenced World Health Organization estimates of roughly 2,000,000 deaths globally tied to lack of access to clean fuel and stoves.

Wright said the challenge is solvable, noting that "1,000,000,000 people have gotten access to clean cooking fuel over the last 15 years," and proposed mobilizing about $4,000,000,000 a year to rapidly expand access in Africa and in parts of South Asia and South America. He described the initiative as a priority for the United States and said partners include the government of Norway, foundations and private businesses.

The secretary contrasted that proposal with what he characterized as large global spending on climate change mitigation, saying the world has spent "over $1,000,000,000,000" annually and "$10,000,000,000,000 in the last 20 years," and asserting that those investments have yielded limited penetration of wind, solar and batteries, which he placed at about "2.6%" of global energy.

Wright framed the clean-cooking effort as both a public-health and gender‑equity priority, saying access reduces the time women spend gathering wood and tending fires. He announced the clean cooking accelerator program as an effort to build infrastructure for faster deployment of clean cooking fuels, with an initial focus on Africa.

The transcript does not provide a program timeline, concrete budget commitments beyond Wright's $4 billion per year figure, or details about which U.S. agencies or implementing partners will lead the effort. The remarks in the transcript also name the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as reference points for the argument but do not quote statutes, grants, or formal resolutions.

Wright closed by thanking delegates, noting a colleague from Kenya among the attendees, and saying he looked forward to working with partners on the initiative.