Guest Post by Sue Preziotti
In an estimated 500 million households worldwide, women cannot feed their families without filling their homes with toxic smoke.
The United Nations reports that nearly 2 million people – mostly children under five years old – die each year from exposure to hazardous stove smoke. Unsafe stoves in developing countries are powered by whatever biomass fuel can be gathered (including crop waste, wood, or dung) or coal. When burned for cooking or heating in the absence of proper ventilation, these fuel sources create pollutants that contribute to illness and death (as well as environmental damage).
The good news is, according to Secretary Hillary Clinton, “we think this is actually a problem we can solve.”
Secretary Clinton discussed the “Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves” yesterday at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), chaired by her husband former President Bill Clinton, who introduced his wife.
She took the stage to announce with optimism the new partnership formed by the U.S. State Department, the U.N. Foundation, the World Food Program, Royal Dutch Shell, the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other public and private partners, who commit to help 100 million households adopt clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels by 2020.
“Never before have we pulled our resources behind one global campaign with such an alliance of partners,” Clinton said.
She said the U.S. would commit more than $50 million dollars over the next five years. Partners have committed more than $10 million, and the goal is to eventually secure $250 million.
The initiative will have several tracks focused on long-term sustainability including developing standards for stoves, creating markets, engaging women to reach remote communities, and seeking to integrate into disaster aid stations and refugee camps.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, who appeared with Secretary Clinton, said the program would “meet the most basic human need of cooking a meal without causing harm. We are going to change the way the world cooks.”
Secretary Clinton tied the initiative to the Administration’s development program announced at last year’s CGI meeting, which she said has become a key element of US foreign policy:
- “Our goal is to help people lift themselves and their families”
- “Development also advances our own security, prosperity and values”
- “We focus on where we can make the most impact”
Finally, she said, the effort is coordinated around the common strategy of meeting the Millenium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
What I found exciting and inspiring, is that in addition to addressing a moral obligation to help others, the U.S. is offering tools to help people help themselves over the long-term. We are helping to empower them, which means they can feel self-sufficient and dignified. We’re sharing the responsibility broadly. We're demonstrating the best of the United States, which will not only help improve our worldwide image, but also build our economy for the future, as we align ourselves at multiple levels with those with whom we seek to share resources, to do business, and indeed to dwell in peace.
More info:
http://press.clintonglobalinitiative.org/index.php?s=43&item=89
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2006/9241563168_eng.pdf
