Background Paper For Clean Cooking Market Place 2013, Nepal.
Saroj Rai, Senior Renewable Energy Advisor, SNV
Out of 5.43 million families in Nepal, 4.50 million (83%) live in rural areas and most of them have no access to any clean cooking energy. These households are using fuels like firewood, cattle dung or agro waste in traditional three-stone or metal tripod stoves. Roughly 1.78 million households are using some kind of clean cooking energy like Improved Cookstoves (ICS), biogas, kerosene, LPG and electricity. This figure is obtained by adding an estimated 450,000 households using ICS and around 1.33 million households using cleaner fuels like biogas (131,596), kerosene (55,610), LPG (1,140,662) and electricity (4,523)1, as primary cooking fuel.
Thus,roughly 3.65 million rural households are cooking in traditional stoves with fuel like firewood, dung and agrowaste and almost 2.85 million households may qualify only for ICS at least in short term and some 800 thousand households may qualify for domestic biogas, particularly those currently using cattle dung for cooking(563,126)2. Of course, solar cookers can be promoted as cooking energy solution in some mountain districts,where firewood is really scarce and biogas is also not feasible.
Indonesia: Toward Universal Access to Clean Cooking, 2013.
World Bank.
Household selection of cooking fuels is generally determined by a fuel’s affordability, availability, accessibility, and cultural acceptability. In the case of Indonesia, the 2006 reductionin the availability of kerosene supply resulted in manyhouseholds—particularly those in rural areas for whom LPG was too expensive or inaccessible—switching to firewood. In addition, many rural households have beenunwilling to pay for LPG, even at the subsidized price,given that they can freely collect fuelwood from the local environment at little or no cost, except for the time spentcollecting it. Furthermore, many households rely on a mix of cooking fuels, especially when alternative fuels are available at an affordable price. For example, rural households that cannot access LPG regularly may use kerosene to supplement their firewood use.
The CSI stocktaking survey shows that the commercial marketfor biomass stoves is quite limited. Indeed, in many ruraland more remote areas, there are no existing markets forbiomass cookstoves. Annual stove production is far lessthan the number of households using biomass stoves,suggesting that a significant number of households donot buy stoves available in the market. Many make their own rudimentary stoves (e.g., three-stone) and have more than one. Primary stoves, commonly made of mud,cement, or stone, are quite energy-inefficient and emit significant amounts of toxic smoke.
Health and Household Air Pollution from Solid Fuel Use: The Need for Improved Exposure Assessment. Environ Health Perspec, July 2013.
Maggie L. Clark, et al.
Objectives: Nearly 3 billion people worldwide rely on solid fuel combustion to meet basic household energy needs. Resulting exposure to air pollution is estimated to cause 4.5% of the global burden of disease. Large variability and a lack of resources for research and development have resulted in highly uncertain exposure estimates. The objective of this paper is to identify research priorities for exposure assessment that will more accurately and precisely define exposureresponse relationships of household air pollution necessary to inform future cleaner burning cookstove dissemination programs.
Data Sources: As part of a May 2011 international workshop, an expert group characterized the state of the science and developed recommendations for exposure assessment of household air pollution.
Synthesis: The following priority research areas were identified to explain variability and reduce uncertainty of household air pollution exposure measurements:
- improved characterization of spatial and temporal variability for studies examining both short and longterm health effects;
- development and validation of measurement technology and approaches to conduct complex exposure assessments in resource limited settings with a large range of pollutant concentrations;
- and development and validation of biomarkers for estimating dose. Addressing these priority research areas, which will inherently require an increased allocation of resources for cookstove research, will lead to better characterization of exposure response relationships.
Conclusions: Although the type and extent of exposure assessment will necessarily depend on the goal and design of the cookstove study, without improved understanding of exposure response relationships, the level of air pollution reduction necessary to meet the health targets of cookstove interventions will remain uncertain.
ANSI U.S. TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP MEETING FOR STANDARDS ON CLEAN COOKSTOVES AND CLEAN COOKING SOLUTIONS | Source: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves |
ANSI, working in coordination with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, has identified potential members of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) to ISO/TC 285 on Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions through the Alliance’s database of members, and through the participants of recent Webinars discussing this new activity.
The first meeting of the US TAG to ISO/TC 285 on Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions. This meeting will introduce U.S. national interested parties to participating on the US TAG, as well as familiarize them with the ISO and ANSI processes. Preparations will be made for the first international meeting of ISO/TC 285, which will take place in Nairobi, Kenya in November of 2013.
When is the meeting? The US TAG meeting is taking place on Thursday, August 1st from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and on Friday, August 2nd, 2013, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
Where is the meeting? The meeting will be held at the offices of the United Nations Foundation, which is located at 1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington DC.
Who is attending the meeting? All U.S. national interested parties that are directly and materially affected by the ISO standardization activity are welcome and encouraged to attend.
How do I attend the meeting? Please RSVP to eterhune@ansi.org no later than July 25th. Attendees will need to be registered in order to attend the meeting and will need to show photo ID to gain admission to the building.
See the attached for further information:
Please contact us at eterhune@ansi.org with any questions.
Improving stove evaluation using survey data: Who received which intervention matters. Ecological Economics 93 (2013) 301–312.
Valerie Mueller, et al.
As biomass fuel use in developing countries causes substantial harm to health and the environment, efficient stoves are candidates for subsidies to reduce emissions. In evaluating improved stoves’ relative benefits, little attention has been given to who received which stove intervention due to choices that are made by agencies and households. Using Chinese household data, we find that the owners of more efficient stoves (i.e., clean-fuel and improved-biomass stoves, as compared with traditional-biomass and coal stoves) live in less healthy counties and differ, across and within counties, in terms of household characteristics such as various assets.
On net, that caused efficient stoves to look worse for health than they actually are. We control for counties and household characteristics in testing stove impacts. Unlike tests that lack controls, our preferred tests with controls suggest health benefits from clean-fuel versus traditional-biomass stoves.Also, they eliminate surprising estimates of health benefits from coal, found without using controls. Our results show the value, for learning, of tracking who gets which intervention.
North China Lives Cut 5 Years by Coal Burning, Study Shows | Source: Bloomberg News, July 9, 2013.
People in northern China may be dying five years sooner than expected because of diseases caused by air pollution, an unintended result of a decades-old policy providing free coal for heat, a study found.
Coal burning leading to heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory illnesses may cause the 500 million Chinese living north of the Huai River — a rough line dividing the country’s north and south — to lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years of life expectancy, according to the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.
The government gave free heating coal for people living north of the Huai River over a period of central planning from 1950 to 1980, and such indoor systems remain common today, the study showed. Burning coal in boilers is linked to the release of particulate matter that can be extremely harmful to humans, raising health costs and suggesting a move away from using fossil fuels would be attractive, according to Michael Greenstone, one of four authors of the study.
“This was an unintended consequence of the policy, showing that the health costs are substantially larger that we had previously understood,” Greenstone, a professor of environmental economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a phone interview. “It makes a movement away from the use of fossil fuels or the installation of pollution abatement equipment look much more attractive.”
The policy wasn’t implemented in the south because of budget constraints, according to the study.
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Impact of chronic respiratory symptoms in a rural area of sub-Saharan Africa: an in-depth qualitative study in the Masindi district of Uganda. Prim Care Respir J 2013.
Frederik van Gemert, et al.
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), once regarded as a disease of developed countries, is now recognised as a common disease in low- and middle-income countries. No studies have been performed to examine how the community in resourcepoor settings of a rural area in sub-Saharan Africa lives with chronic respiratory symptoms.
Aims: To explore beliefs and attitudes concerning health (particularly respiratory illnesses), use of biomass fuels, tobacco smoking, and the use of health services.
Methods: A qualitative study was undertaken in a rural area of Masindi district in Uganda, using focus group discussions with 10–15 members of the community in 10 randomly selected villages.
Results: Respiratory symptoms were common among men, women, and children. In several communities respiratory symptoms were stigmatised and often associated with tuberculosis. Almost all the households used firewood for cooking and the majority cooked indoors without any ventilation. The extent of exposure to tobacco and biomass fuel smoke was largely determined by their cultural tradition and gender, tribal origin and socioeconomic factors. Many people were unaware of the damage to respiratory health caused by these risk
factors, notably the disproportionate effect of biomass smoke in women and children.
Conclusions: The knowledge of chronic respiratory diseases, particularly COPD, is poor in the rural community in sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of knowledge has created different beliefs and attitudes concerning respiratory symptoms. Few people are aware of the relation between smoke and respiratory health, leading to extensive exposure to mostly biomass-related smoke.
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The Paradigm Project to Revolutionize Distribution of Energy Efficient Products in Developing Countries | Source: Ecopreneurist, July 8, 2013
The Paradigm Project recently announced that it plans to launch a new franchise brand called EzyLife that will revolutionize distribution of energy efficient products in the developing world.
EzyLife will focus on last-mile distribution of fuel efficient cookstoves and other innovative consumer products, such as solar lanterns, water filters and agricultural products—products that deliver social benefit and simply make life easier.
The Paradigm Project is a social venture company that invests profit-seeking and philanthropic capital to create sustainable and scalable business models that deliver social, economic and environmental value within developing world countries. To do this, they collaborate with local businesses and global non-profits to build and manage scalable supply chain businesses that meet immediate development needs.
“It’s no secret that technologies designed for the base of the pyramid are numerous and rapidly evolving,” explains Neil Bellefeuille, CEO of The Paradigm Project. “Unfortunately, the affordability and availability of these technologies is often limited by a lack of appropriate financing and efficient distribution to market. By providing unique opportunities to local entrepreneurs and finance partner, offering high-value products and creating a dynamic brand that consumers can get to know and trust, we are building efficient last-mile distribution capable of reaching millions throughout the developing world.” 
The Paradigm Project is currently seeking sponsors who are interested in funding an entrepreneur launch kit for at-risk women in Ethiopia to become a Last Mile Entrepreneur. EzyLife Last Mile Entrepreneurs sell goods door to door in rural markets, earning a living wage and gaining valuable business experience. Each $250 sponsorship will provide an aspiring entrepreneur with: three months of training and mentoring as an EzyLife customer representative, three months of salary, and a product starter kit including one EzyStove, one Sun King Pro solar lamp, one Sawyer water filter, a branded EzyLife shirt, ID badge and product marketing materials. Parties interested in sponsoring an EzyLife Last Mile Entrepreneur can visit http://www.ezylife.com/get-involved/invest-in-an-lme.
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Better air for better health: Forging synergies in policies for energy access, climate change and air pollution, Global Environmental Change, 2 July 2013.
Shilpa Rao, Shonali Pachauri, Frank Dentener, Patrick Kinney, Zbigniew Klimont, Keywan Riahi, Wolfgang Schoepp.
Air pollution and its related health impacts are a global concern. This paper addresses how current policies on air pollution, climate change and access to clean cooking fuels can effectively reduce both outdoor and household air pollution and improve human health. A state of the art modeling framework is used that combines an integrated assessment model and an atmospheric model to estimate the spatial extent and distribution of outdoor air pollution exposures. Estimates of household energy access and use are modeled by accounting for heterogeneous household energy choices and affordability constraints for rural and urban populations spanning the entire income distribution. Results are presented for 2030 for a set of policy scenarios on air pollution, climate change and energy access and include spatially explicit emissions of air pollutants; ambient concentrations of PM2.5; and health impacts in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) from both ambient and household air pollution.
The results stress the importance of enforcing current worldwide air quality legislation in addressing the impacts of outdoor air pollution. A combination of stringent policies on outdoor air pollution, climate change and access to clean cooking fuels is found to be effective in achieving reductions in average ambient PM2.5 exposures to below World Health Organization recommended levels for a majority of the world’s population and results in a significant decline in the global burden of disease from both outdoor and household air pollution.
Test Kitchen studies of indoor air pollution from biomass cookstoves, Energy for Sustainable Development, 28 May 2013
Kelley Grabow, Dean Still, Sam Bentson,
Indoor air pollution from biomass cookstoves seriously affects human health worldwide. This study investigated the effect of increasing air exchange rates in a Test Kitchen. Opening the door and window in a Test Kitchen lowered the particulate matter (PM) 1-hour concentrations between 93 and 98% compared to the closed kitchen, and the carbon monoxide (CO) 1-hour concentrations were 83 to 95% lower.
