Call for funds as campaigners lay out clean cooking vision

NEW YORK, November 20: A global campaign group has urged governments, donors and investors to cough up at least US$500 million to promote clean cooking, which they say can help cut millions of premature deaths.
"Now it's time to turn up the flame and truly transform the way the world cooks," said Radha Muthiah, executive director with Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
"We live in a world that is beset by problems that stubbornly resist solutions ... the solution is within our grasp and within our means," the ED said as she spoke at the opening session of Cookestoves Future Summit that began in this US city today.
"The opportunity is real, the market is poised for scale and the imperative for action is now ours."
Her call comes as the Alliance aims to enable 60 million households to adopt clean-cooking solutions by 2017.
She noted open fires consume 500 million tonnes of firewood a year and
spew out 21 per cent of global black carbon emissions.
In addition to the toll on health and the environment, she said, open fires used for cooking have a "serious" impact on the economic and social empowerment of women and girls.
"Hours spent gathering fuel, feeding the fire and cooking food could be better spent on school, running a small business, raising children, or tending to crops," Ms Muthiah told the rare summit on a household concern.
She outlined the vision of the Alliance over the next three years that includes promoting public-private partnership, innovation, and pursuing policy and regulatory reforms to support the sector.
Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of UN Foundation, said household smokes have a direct impact on climate change and it must be halted to ensure safety of women and girls--and their future, too.
"Clean-cooking stoves are life-changing and lifesaving solutions," she said. Around four million people, mostly women and children, die each year because of exposure to household smokes from traditional stoves.
Speaking on a panel, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid said Bangladesh will give a big push for use of liquefied petroleum gas in urban areas in the next three years toensure clean cooking. This is also imperative in view of fast-depleting natural gas.
"For us, it's a big challenge to keep LPG prices lower," he said.
To tackle the challenge, he said, the government considers lowering duty and offering private enterprises a 10-year tax break to encourage import and installation of LPG plants.
Mr Hamid said Bangladesh has spent $6.5 million and will require investing another chunk of US$ 100 million to finance installation of 5 million clean cookestoves by 2017.
Close to 90 per cent of Bangladeshi households rely on solid fuels to cook and the action plan of the government envisions making all kitchens smoke-free by 2030.
An estimated 78,000 Bangladeshis die each year because of exposure to household air pollution.
Organised by the UN-led Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the summit has brought together public, private, and non-government leaders from around the world to speed up actions for clean-cooking solutions.
The summit is being co-hosted by former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton, UK's parliamentary under secretary of state for international development Lyne Featherstone, administrator of USAID Dr. Razib Shah, Norwegian foreign minister Borge Brende, and minister of foreign affairs and regional integrations Hanna Tetteh.
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