The Foreign Service Journal, April 2011

A P R I L 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 World Bank study in Rwanda found that these stoves cost just a few dollars extra to purchase than chulhas, but they decrease daily consumption of charcoal from 0.51 to 0.33 kilograms per person. This means that over the course of a sin- gle year, a family could save about $84 in fuel costs by using 394 fewer kilograms of charcoal. And that is a substantial savings, given that aver- age incomes in East African and Central African countries are only $300-$370 per year. In India, UNEP is involved in sponsoring an exciting new project called “Surya” (Sunlight). Having com- pleted the pilot phase, Surya has now targeted a 100- square-kilometer rural area in northern India, whose population of 50,000 will receive cleaner and less pol- luting cook stoves. The project plans to document the impact on air qual- ity, climate and exposure to toxic materials over three years, using advanced technology from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Surya will also use cell-phone technology to monitor the impact of the new stoves and seek carbon credit offsets as further mo- tivation for the rural population to use the more efficient stoves. A Global Alliance In September 2010, UNEP, along with other interna- tional partners like the United Nations Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves launched by Sec- retary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The U.S. gov- ernment has provided $50 million in seed money for the project, which hopes to send 100 million clean-burning stoves to villages in Africa, Asia and South America by 2020. One of the quick wins associated with distributing cleaner cook stoves is the fact that unlike carbon dioxide, which causes significant global warming and stays in the atmosphere for years, soot stays aloft for just a few weeks. Figures obtained in UNEP field studies show that elim- inating the emission of one ton of black carbon can re- duce as much global warming as would be obtained by producing 3,000 fewer tons of carbon dioxide. This in- sight offers a basis for slowing down climate change. A definitive assessment of the threat soot poses will only emerge once the United Nations Intergov- ernmental Panel on Climate Change releases its fifth assess- ment report in 2013. But we al- ready have conclusive evidence of the benefits of cleaner cook stoves. A study in The Lancet , one of the world’s most respected medical journals, indicates that a 10-year program to introduce 150 million low-emission stoves to India could prevent about two million premature deaths. Greener Chulhas The strides in improving cook stoves must now move to the public policy level. Millions of stoves have been distributed free of charge in India during the past 20 years, but limited information on the benefits of the technology has left many of them unused. In many cases consumer preferences were not taken into account, nor were region-specific habits considered. In addition, there has never been a sustained campaign to explain the many benefits of using the new stove, leading to poor buy-in. This June, for the first time ever, India will host the United Nation’s highest-profile environmental outreach event: World Environment Day. Those of us at UNEP look forward to working with other Global Cook Stove Alliance partners to show that better stoves can bring tan- gible improvements to women’s daily lives. Institutionalizing the switch to “green chulhas” must become a national priority for every developing country through a public awareness campaign that highlights health, safety, air quality, climate change mitigation and, ultimately, the creation of a green economy and overall economic development for rural populations, in India and around the world. My grandmother never developed any lung disease from all the soot she inhaled at the stove, but her life around the hearth did leave her with a bad back. Re- grettably, she died before she could reap any of the ben- efits of the greener chulhas. But today, Indian women have a real chance to improve their lives, thanks to the Global Cook Stove Alliance. n F O C U S Solutions are now available to ensure clean combustion, reduce the consumption of wood and, ultimately, free women from the dangers of the hearth.