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Wright Discusses Advancing Energy Access and Clean Cooking Solutions, Feb. 18, 2026

February 18, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:06:27

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright discussed advancing energy access and clean cooking solutions, in the Department of Energy’s upload of the February 18, 2026 session at the International Energy Agency. Wright called clean cooking what the U.S. government and President Trump believe is the world’s largest solvable problem: two billion people, a quarter of humanity, lack clean cooking fuel — 800,000 preventable deaths a year in Africa and about two million globally, as the figures were stated at the session — while a billion people have gained access over the last 15 years, proof, he said, that the problem can be solved.

Wright cited the figure given at the session of $4 billion a year to rapidly lift a billion people in Africa and another billion across South Asia and South America, and framed clean fuel as liberation for the women who spend hours a day gathering wood and tending fires. He announced the launch of a U.S. clean cooking accelerator program to build infrastructure for faster deployment of clean cooking fuel solutions, first in Africa, with partners including the government of Norway, foundations, and businesses, as he described the effort.

Why it matters

The February 18 session carries Wright’s signature issue to its institutional home: a named U.S. program — the clean cooking accelerator — announced at the IEA, converting the toll figures he cites at the Security Council and in Croatia into a funded-deployment vehicle with international partners.

Scoreboard candidate

Scoreboard candidate: the clean cooking accelerator program announced by Secretary Wright on February 18, 2026 — a U.S. program to build infrastructure for faster clean-cooking fuel deployment, first in Africa, as he announced it. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Discusses Advancing Energy Access & Clean Cooking Solutions - February 18, 2026” (official upload, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Secretary Wright).