NAIROBI, Kenya - African nations have obtained $900 million in fresh funding pledges aimed at broadening access to clean cooking solutions that swap out harmful fuels for safer options, according to the International Energy Agency on Thursday.

This latest round adds to the $2.2 billion raised during the first Africa Clean Cooking Summit held in Paris last year, pushing overall pledges past $3.1 billion to support wider rollout of improved fuels, stoves and supporting systems continent-wide.

The announcement came via an online session on African clean cooking hosted by the IEA and Kenya, where officials assessed advances since the prior summit and set goals for the upcoming event scheduled later this year.

Around 1 billion people in Africa continue without clean cooking options and depend on charcoal, firewood and similar polluting sources linked by the IEA to roughly 850,000 early deaths annually.

Participants included Kenyan President William Ruto, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, African Union commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Lerato Mataboge and IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

Clean cooking involves low-emission options such as ethanol, biogas and electricity in place of traditional charcoal and firewood, cutting indoor pollution and supporting better health for many households.

"Access to clean cooking ranks among the most effective yet underappreciated issues today," noted Wright, highlighting its direct effect on billions, especially women and children.

Kenya's Ruto emphasized that funding stands as the primary barrier to universal clean cooking access. "Ambition alone falls short without investment backing," he stated.

Birol reported that IEA tracking indicates $740 million, roughly one-third of the Paris pledges, has reached 22 African countries so far.

"The new $900 million in pledges signals rising progress, with further amounts anticipated ahead of the next summit," Birol added.

The IEA also published findings on 121 fresh clean cooking policies launched in over 30 African countries since the Paris event, covering nations representing about 80 percent of those lacking access.

The agency collaborates with the African Union to bolster national policies through a continent-wide plan before the next summit.

It introduced the Clean Cooking Security Programme to enhance supply chains for fuels like liquefied petroleum gas following earlier shipping issues in the Strait of Hormuz that impacted around 30 percent of global LPG trade. Over 3.4 billion people rely on LPG for cooking.

The program offers technical support for fuel security and promotes international cooperation on supply chains.