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Sierra Club India Environment Post: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Posted by: Guay on September 27, 2010 at 9:19AM PST

It is difficult to comprehend in a society where owning a car is often a prerequisite to a 16th birthday, that nearly 3 billion people, about half of humanity, lack such ubiquitous modern conveniences as clean efficient stoves. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) these inefficient stoves lead to 1.9 million annual deaths from indoor air pollution (IAP) every year. What’s worse, the impact is primarily borne by the most vulnerable in society - women and children. The good news is that a relatively “simple” technology - improved cookstoves - can help rectify the situation by providing a myriad of benefits including saving lives, improving livelihoods, empowering women, and combating climate change.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to invest in improved cookstoves is the opportunity to reduce morbidity and mortality. For example, in India, the Lancet found that the distribution of fifteen million improved cookstoves every year for the next decade could supply 87 percent of households across India with a technology that would reduce premature deaths by 17 percent. In addition to reducing pollution, more efficient stoves reduce the frequency and duration of trips spent foraging for fuel wood, which can help women in conflict areas avoid being brutalized. The reduced need for firewood not only protects women, it reduces what can be severe deforestation in conflict areas and refugee situations (as occurred in the Kivu region of the Congo after the Rwandan genocide).

In addition to reducing deforestation, improved cookstoves play an important role in mitigating climate change by reducing black carbon that lasts days to weeks in the atmosphere (compared to one hundred years for carbon dioxide). This fast acting mitigation strategy is critical for India where black carbon emissions account for thirty percent of the changes associated with Himalayan glacier melt. By eliminating the use of open fires for cooking and the accompanying black carbon emissions, it is possible to reduce an estimated 0.5-1 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases in India alone. Considering the fact that black carbon emissions result in nearly one-fifth of temperature increases associated with global warming – the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide – it is clear that an investment in improved cookstoves is an investment in combating climate change.

However, until recently progress on achieving the win-win-win associated with this technology has been held back for decades by a variety of cultural, technological, and market-related factors. However, in 2009 India announced a National Biomass Cookstoves Initiative, under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to provide improved cookstoves for an estimated 160 million Indian homes. The program will help eliminate the 570,000 premature deaths poor women and children suffer. In 2010 the initiative was bolstered by the announcement of a partnership with the X Prize Foundation and the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi to create a global competition to develop and deploy clean and efficient cookstoves.

While these efforts are critical, the truly catalyzing moment came last week at the Clinton Global Initiative when the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was announced with a US contribution of $50 million. By addressing past failures and creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions, the Alliance plans to reach its ‘100 by 20’ goal that calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. The Alliance’s effort rests on its ability to work with public, private, and non-profit partners to overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves in the developing world.

Ultimately, addressing the critical issues that surround inefficient cookstoves yields benefits that far outweigh the meager costs; Costs which pale in comparison to the unacceptable burden borne by the worlds' poor. While cookstoves themselves are only one step towards saving the world, by addressing the fundamental issues of women’s empowerment, improved health, and improved environmental sustainability we are investing in a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for us all.

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