As leaders prepare to gather for the G20 Summit in South Africa, an urgent and pragmatic conversation is taking shape: how to harness natural gas and LPG as immediate, scalable solutions to deliver power and clean cooking across Africa – and, in doing so, make energy poverty history. The African Energy Chamber (AEC) will bring this debate to the forefront at the G20 Africa Energy Investment Forum in Johannesburg on November 21, serving as a key follow-up to African Energy Week and a precursor to the G20 Summit.

Why Gas and Clean Cooking?

Nearly one billion people in Africa still lack access to clean cooking solutions, with devastating health, economic and environmental consequences. International agencies have highlighted that accelerating investments in clean-cooking fuels – including LPG – is one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives, reduce indoor air pollution and relieve women and girls from the daily burden of collecting fuel. The IEA has underscored that scaling clean-cooking investment can materially move the continent toward universal access.

At the same time, natural gas offers a near-term route to expand reliable electricity access. New gas-fired power plants, distributed gas-to-power projects and smaller-scale gas solutions can be deployed faster than many large renewables-plus-storage models, especially where grid expansion and storage remain constrained. For countries with domestic reserves or proximate pipeline and LNG infrastructure, gas can underpin industrialization – powering factories, processing plants and agriculture – and support the broader economic transformation that sustained energy access requires.

A Realistic, African-led Approach

The AEC and African Energy Week have pushed a pragmatic message: Africa’s energy strategy should be determined by its priorities – development, jobs and access – rather than a one-size-fits-all decarbonization timetable. The upcoming G20 forum is designed to translate that pragmatism into investment commitments, linking G20 capital and policy dialogue with concrete projects on the ground. AEW’s recent programming and the forum’s launch materials emphasize deal-making, infrastructure and scaled solutions for both power and clean cooking.

“Some 750,000 to one million Africans die every year from lack of clean cooking fuels – and this must end,” states NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the AEC. “LPG is a proven, affordable solution that can save lives today while building the foundation for a cleaner energy future. Africa will lead this change. We are going to use LPG, scale it across the continent and we will not stop.”

The challenge – and the opportunity – is turning calls for LPG and gas-to-power into bankable projects that attract G20 investors. That requires coordinated policy frameworks, public-private partnerships to de-risk early projects and targeted finance instruments that make small-scale clean-cooking businesses and LPG distribution commercially viable. The forum on November 21 will be an important test of whether the G20 and African partners can align on investment vehicles that accommodate the continent’s need for pragmatic transition solutions while attracting capital at scale.

Making Energy Poverty History

For Africa, ending energy poverty is a development imperative. Faster access to power through gas-to-power, paired with rapid roll-out of clean cooking fuels like LPG, can produce immediate health, economic and gender-equity benefits while giving countries the fiscal space to scale renewables and storage over time. For investors and G20 partners, the appeal is twofold: these are high-impact, near-term interventions with clear social returns, and they create the infrastructure backbone for a longer-term, diversified energy mix.

The coming weeks – the G20 Africa Energy Investment Forum and the G20 Summit – will test whether words can translate into tangible action. The forum’s focus on advancing pragmatic, African-led investments in gas-to-power and clean cooking solutions marks meaningful progress toward making energy poverty a challenge of the past rather than a defining feature of Africa’s future.