The next time you use your modern oven, spare a thought for the 3 billion people in developing countries who cook their daily meals using traditional stoves fuelled by wood, animal dung or charcoal. It may seem romantic to imagine bread gently baking in a traditional oven but smoke from these fires can seriously damage the health of those sitting around the stove, particularly when there is little ventilation. It is estimated that 4 million people die in developing countries die each year from household cooking smoke. Hillary Clinton is promoting the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. - seeking to mobilize high-level national and donor commitments toward the goal of clean stoves and fuels in 100 million households by 2020. The Alliance is mobilizing support from a wide range of private, public, and non-profit stakeholders - using market forces instead of philanthropy - prompting governments to incentivise local entrepreneurs to manufacture cheap and environmentally clean stoves to sell to local consumers. World Bank and others are trying to disseminate the technology and standards, and pull in western investment capital from socially responsible funds to back the entrepreneurs. Here at Haller, our alternative energy programme (haller.org.uk/our-work/alternative-energy/) educates people about the damaging effects of firewood and kerosene on the environment, and to health. We work to relieve fuel poverty, by helping communities produce alternatives which are healthier, more economical and more sustainable. We also show communities how to sell surplus energy by setting up nano-enterprises, which gives added incentive to use alternative energy. ft/cms/s/0/72166e4a-75bd-11e4-a1a9-00144feabdc0.html
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 09:00:01 +0000
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