Grant For PHI For Clean Cookstove Technology

The Public Health Institute (PHI) has been awarded a major grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) focused on implementing clean cookstove technology, according to a PHI Press Release.

The $980,000 award will support planning and field work for the next year on cookstoves in Kenya, Guatemala and India, as well as joining the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the National Institutes of Health and CDC in planning a global clean cookstoves workshop.

This grant is one of the first provided by a U.S. Government agency under a new initiative for clean cookstoves announced at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 21 by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Secretary Clinton said that the U.S. government would provide at least $50 million over the next five years toward a global goal to put 100 million fuel-efficient stoves into use worldwide by 2020.

The Public Health Institute, a California-based nonprofit, has been generating and promoting research, leadership and partnerships to build capacity for strong public health policy, programs, systems and practices for 40 years.

“We are delighted to implement one of the U.S. government’s first large-scale efforts on clean cookstoves,” said PHI President and CEO Mary Pittman. “This project will allow PHI to help advance public health knowledge and practices around the use of cleaner cookstove technologies around the world and their impact on air quality.”

“There is no silver bullet when it comes to clean cookstove technology,” said Pittman. “We understand that there remain significant challenges in the design, manufacture, distribution, and measurement of clean burning stoves. But putting fuel efficiency and safe technology in the hands of millions of people is an attainable goal, and PHI is the right organization to work with CDC and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves on this critical initiative.”

Read Press Release Public Health Institute Award to Advance Clean Cookstove Technology
Photo Courtesy: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

US EPA Makes Cookstoves A Priority

The US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently annouunced the international priorities of the the agency to include a focus on reducing black carbon through cookstoves. Among the six priorities outlined by the EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson was the priority on "Combating Climate Change by Limiting Pollutants."

The EPA says that while it has has taken important steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home, but the global challenge of climate change requires a global solution. "To make significant progress in reducing the effects of climate change, pollution must be cut throughout the world. EPA will promote global strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants such as methane from landfills and black carbon from cookstoves. These pollutants are damaging especially vulnerable regions such as the Himalayan glaciers and the Arctic."

The announcement was made at a meeting of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Guanajuato, Mexico.

“Pollution doesn’t stop at international borders, and neither can our environmental and health protections. The local and national environmental issues of the past are now global challenges,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Read the full Press Release "Administrator Jackson Announces EPA’s International Priorities / Agency to work with other countries to curb pollution at home and abroad"

Image Description: Black Carbon and Sulfate Aerosol Optical Thickness. Image created by Science on a Sphere, Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA. Image Location: NOAA http://sos.noaa.gov/images/atmosphere/black_and_sulfate.jpg .