Climate advocacy group wePlanet has called on G20 member states to compel the World Bank and other development banks to lift restrictions that prevent financing for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) projects in developing countries, arguing the policies are costing millions of African lives.
The appeal follows the recent G20 Leaders’ Declaration issued at the South Africa Summit. The G20 comprises 19 sovereign states, the European Union and the African Union.
wePlanet Africa Coordinator Patricia Nanteza said the declaration validated the campaign’s core message by acknowledging that two million Africans die every year due to indoor air pollution from wood and charcoal, largely because of limited access to clean cooking fuels.
“We have been sounding the alarm about the human and environmental cost of dirty cooking fuels,” Nanteza said. “The G20’s explicit acknowledgement of the two million annual deaths proves this is a moral, public health, and climate emergency. Now, action must follow alarm.”
Nanteza criticised what she described as “carbon colonialism within global financial institutions, arguing that restrictions on LPG lending disproportionately harm developing countries.
She said wealthy nations continue to expand their own fossil fuel infrastructure while African communities are denied access to cleaner transition fuels.
“Our #JustStopCooking campaign questions this fundamental injustice: How can global finance policies prohibit funding for LPG a clean transition fuel that saves lives and forests in Africa while wealthier nations simultaneously expand their own fossil fuel infrastructure?” she said.
The G20 Declaration outlines several financing pathways to support clean cooking access, including concessional and blended financing to de-risk investment, as well as innovative mechanisms such as debt-for-climate swaps.
But wePlanet says these measures cannot work while lending institutions maintain restrictions on LPG.
“The G20 must instruct the World Bank and other development banks to immediately remove the de facto ban on financing LPG for clean cooking, aligning their lending policies with this declaration,” Nanteza said.
“The G20 has sounded the alarm; now they must deliver the funding through their institutions like the World Bank.”
Nanteza urged governments to prioritise clean cooking finance, arguing that policy shifts would save lives, protect forests and support climate commitments across Africa.