The Financial Express of Bangladesh: Cooking Shouldn’t Kill
- By on January 31, 2012
A Letter to the Editor of The Financial Express by Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Executive Director Radha Muthiah:
Thank you for your recent editorial (Appropriate Technology Solutions, 21/01/2012) highlighting the formation of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), which is working to create a thriving global market to serve the approximately 3.0 billion people worldwide who rely on solid fuel to cook their food. Indoor air pollution (IAP) from the inefficient burning of solid fuels such as biomass, coal or animal waste is responsible for a range of health and environmental problems that acutely impact women and children, killing two million people annually.
I would like to address any confusion about the Alliance’s role in the clean cookstove and fuel sector.
GACC is committed to remaining company, technology and fuel neutral. There is no singular clean cookstove or fuel that will solve the pervasive problem of toxic cookstove smoke. The Alliance is working with the International Organisation for Standardisation to set both interim and long-term criteria to define cookstoves and fuels that are ‘clean’, ensuring that future products on the market meet or supersede that threshold. Additionally, the Alliance is not planning to sell cookstoves and fuels, but rather will work within the market to support local researchers, designers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers with financial and in-kind resources, as well as strengthen relationships with potential customers.
As you noted in your editorial, IAP significantly impacts Bangladeshi women. The Alliance looks forward to cultivating a specialised, productive and mutually-beneficial relationship with your government and the country’s clean cookstove and fuel sector in order to improve health, create economic opportunities for women and preserve forests and habitats. Because we firmly believe that cooking shouldn’t kill.
Radha Muthiah
Executive Director
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Washington, DC
E-mail : SBartlett@unfoundation.org
Originally published in The Financial Express
