ADOPTING HEALTHIER COOKING PRACTICES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Brenda DOROSKI
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania, Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460
Doroski.brenda@epa.gov
Overview
The Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) is a public-private partnership of more than
170 non-governmental organizations (55%), private sector companies (20%), government
and multilateral agencies (14%), and educational institutions (11%) working together to
improve health, livelihood and quality of life through reduced exposure to indoor air
pollution (IAP) from household energy use in developing countries. The Partnership was
launched at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development by a handful of
governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and
the Shell Foundation, to address the increased health risk faced by the three billion people
worldwide who burn traditional biomass fuels and coal indoors for home cooking and
heating, which results in an estimated 1.5 million premature deaths each year from
exposure to indoor air pollution.
More than half of the world’s population cook their food and heat their homes by burning
coal and biomass, including wood, dung, and crop residues, over open fires or in
rudimentary stoves. Indoor burning of solid fuels releases dangerous particulate matter,
carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants; leads to IAP levels that are 20 to 100 times
greater than the WHO air quality guidelines; and releases greenhouse gases into the air.
Indoor air pollution from household energy is ranked fourth in the list of serious threats
to health in less developed countries, after malnutrition, unsafe sex, and unsafe water.
Women and children face the greatest risks. Breathing unsafe levels of smoke indoors
more than doubles a child’s risk of serious respiratory infection and is associated with
adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as stillbirth and low-weight babies.
In addition to well known greenhouse gas emissions like methane, recent studies indicate
that cook stoves may be the “dominant source” of black carbon emissions which also
have an important climate impact. Black carbon has a warming effect 3-4 times more
than prevailing estimates and contributes to the atmospheric brown cloud in Asia. This
cloud has a regional warming effect that impacts food production via reduced rainfall and
glacial melt.
The health risks and threats to the environment are on the rise: the International Energy
Agency estimates that 200 million more people will use coal and biomass fuels by 2030.
Partners are responding by increasing the use of clean technologies and fuels such as
improved biomass, charcoal and coal stoves, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), biogas, ethanol,
methanol, solar, and retained heat cookers.
Methods
The PCIA is focused on four priority areas which have proved to be essential elements of
sustainable household energy and health programs in developing countries: incorporating
social and behavioral customs into household energy programs; developing and
enhancing sustainable markets; improving stove design and performance; and monitoring
the impact of interventions to demonstrate reduced exposure to indoor air pollution,
reduced fuel use, and other socioeconomic and environmental benefits.
The first priority area, incorporating social and behavioral customs into household
energy programs, helps to ensure that the new cooking/heating practice meets the needs
of and is valued by the end user, which in the long term is necessary for sustained use. A
central theme of the Partnership is the need to effectively educate communities about the
health impacts of indoor air pollution and the benefits of clean cooking fuels and
technologies, as well as the proper use and maintenance of the new technology.
The second priority area is to develop and enhance local business models and
sustainable markets for clean, efficient, and affordable cooking/heating technologies,
including development of micro-finance and other financial assistance options to develop
local businesses and spur investments. Partners employing a business strategy
framework that includes a customer needs driven solution supported by a sustainable
business model are finding they are able to reach a larger number of people and are less
reliant on donor funding for continued operations.
Over the last five years, much progress has been made in the third priority area to design,
evaluate and produce clean burning, efficient, affordable, safe, and reliable cooking
technologies. One critical element of this has been to test new technologies being
promoted by Partner organizations for heat transfer efficiency and emissions. The
Aprovecho Research Center has conducted tests on dozens of stoves, providing written
reports to the organizations outlining test results and recommendations for improving the
stove design and performance. In addition, the testing protocol and results have been
validated at the USEPA/Office of Research & Development (ORD) laboratory. The
ORD test results have been accepted to be published in a peer reviewed journal.
Partners have identified consensus-based voluntary stove guidelines for stove
performance as another critical need to drive improvements in stoves. Such guidelines
would, for the first time, set stove “benchmarks,” enabling the field to define an
“improved” stove, and help ensure that Partners are promoting stoves that have defined
parameters for lowering emissions and reducing fuel use. A small number of Partners
already utilize some type of stove “benchmark.” This standard setting effort would
develop consensus for stove performance around the world and would include methods of
stove testing to confirm stove performance. Such a tool would revolutionize the field,
providing particular usefulness to those stove programs seeking voluntary and formal
carbon market credits.
The PCIA has recently recognized the need to educate and enlist the participation of the
code community in developing voluntary stove performance guidelines. These
guidelines would vastly improve the performance of cook stoves being promoted so that
they meet performance standards for emissions (particulate matter, carbon monoxide),
combustion and fuel efficiency, and safety. Ultimately, this will expand the market for
high quality stoves, and improve the health, livelihood, and quality of life of millions of
people through reduced exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use.
Another key element for improving stove design and performance is greater attention to
manufacturing specifications and quality control. Partners who are able to standardize
stove production, or employ mass production techniques, are able to reduce production
costs, increase production, and consistently maintain design specifications for optimum
combustion efficiency.
The fourth priority area of the Partnership is monitoring the impact of household
energy interventions on such things as indoor air pollution levels, fuel use and costs, and
time spent collecting fuel and cooking. This information is critical to understanding key
indictors which can then inform ongoing program activities.
More than thirty Partner organizations are actively implementing monitoring and
evaluation programs. Recent feedback from meetings and regional workshops indicate
that they are facing common problems and possible solutions. For instance, in almost all
cases, the resources required to implement the monitoring (e.g., time, personnel,
financial) were more than anticipated; and sample size selection had proven to be very
challenging, leading to the recommendation to select more households than required for
statistical significance in anticipation of some dropouts.
There is excitement that initial findings indicate that IAP levels are being reduced in
households using improved cook stoves; not just in isolated cases, but in every case
presented. Partners also acknowledge that people are still using traditional stoves for
select purposes. In fact, multiple uses are common and there is agreement that it is
important to recognize and accept this fact. Other lessons learned include time and
resources required for staff training and the need for simple and portable equipment.
The Partnership will continue to advance the IAP monitoring work being implemented by
Partners in the field by meeting the stated needs for technical training (e.g., calibration of
instruments, data analysis) and international forums to compare and discuss results.
Other next steps in this field include exploring ways to make monitoring less intrusive
and make equipment more compact and sharing information on how groups are planning
on correlating their IAP data with other key parameters (e.g. time/activity, ventilation,
etc). Finally, there is significant interest in standardizing reporting mechanisms in order
to better understand results among partners.
Over the past six years, the U.S. Government has invested 5.5 million dollars and 15
million dollars of additional funds have been leveraged from other partner organizations
to achieve this mission through a variety of initiatives:
Capacity Building and Technical Assistance – The Partnership provides in-depth
technical training in community outreach and education, stove design and performance,
commercialization of stove programs, and indoor air pollution and socioeconomic impact
monitoring, the four priority areas for sustainable programs. Over the past four years,
more than 300 Partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America have participated in PCIA
regional workshops to learn new skills in these priority areas. These workshops have
resulted in more data available on the performance of innovative technologies and the
impact of interventions throughout the world; an increased number of new, improved
technologies being promoted; robust business strategies with which to evaluate, roll out
and monitor household energy programs; and commercially viable markets for improved
technologies.
Participant feedback from PCIA workshops indicate that participants appreciated the
hands-on, participatory formats of the workshops, and found the interaction and
networking with other regional experts essential in identifying solutions and effective
approaches for their individual stove programs. The Partnership will continue to provide
Partners with regional training opportunities to strengthen vital components of their
household energy and health programs.
The Partnership also actively facilitates information exchange to help researchers,
entrepreneurs, project implementers, and program directors learn from one another
through regional workshops and international meetings and forums. The Biennial
Partnership Forums give Partners an outstanding opportunity to share results, best
practices and lessons learned, and set goals for reducing indoor air pollution globally.
The next PCIA Forum will be held in Kampala, Uganda March 23 – 28.
In addition, the Partnership publishes technology design and performance guides such as
“Design Principles for Wood Burning Cookstoves” and “Guide to Retained Heat
Cookers” to increase the capacity of Partners to design and manufacture clean, efficient,
and safe cooking and heating technologies.
Knowledge Management – The Partnership publishes the quarterly PCIA Bulletin,
which highlights the activities of the Partnership and its Partners around the world, and
aims to raise awareness about issues related to indoor air pollution, household energy and
health. Many of the Bulletins have had a thematic focus on such things as Partner
activities in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia; government policies and
incentives; effectively using volunteers; humanitarian assistance; cooking and carbon;
and best practices related to technology, commercialization, education, and monitoring.
Past issues of the Bulletin are available online at www.pciaonline.org/bulletin.
In addition, the PCIA website provides background information on household energy and
health, access to PCIA technical publications and other important resources, relevant
news and events updates, and highlights of Partner accomplishments.
Implementation – Partners are implementing projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
to identify and demonstrate effective approaches for increasing the use of clean, reliable,
affordable, efficient, and safe home cooking and heating practices that reduce people’s
exposure to indoor air pollution. Partners aim to scale up projects that promote improved
cooking and heating practices that are more fuel efficient, meet users’ needs, reduce
exposures, and can be produced locally. These projects integrate successful approaches
and models for conducting outreach and education, developing local businesses and
markets, and monitoring exposure reductions and other benefits.
For example, the USEPA has recently awarded $1.5 million to support eight scale-up
projects in Bolivia, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and Pakistan. Awardees
successfully met program requirements through demonstrating that their proposed
technology to be scaled up 1) reduces people’s exposure to particulate matter and carbon
monoxide by a minimum of 50%, and reduces fuel use by a minimum of 30% over
current local practices; 2) meets the needs of the target population (e.g., is affordable,
reliable, clean, efficient, and safe); 3) provides a social benefit (e.g., has a positive impact
on health, local employment and income generation, environment, and/or family
finances); and 4) utilizes a financially sustainable business model. These projects will
manufacture and sell more than 160,000 stoves during the two-year project period, and
will serve as models for scaling up commercially viable and sustainable programs.
Ultimately, the combined effects of these initiatives will lead to improved health, family
economics and quality of life; reduced poverty and impact on environment; and increased
job opportunities throughout the world.
Results
The Partnership has grown from a handful of Partners to more than 170 organizations
working in 67 countries worldwide. In March 2007, more than 130 partners gathered at
the 3rd Biennial PCIA Forum in Bangalore, India to celebrate outstanding achievements
and commit to future action. Already, key PCIA Partners have reported helping 1.4
million households to adopt clean and efficient cooking practices, reducing harmful
exposures for more than 7.6 million people around the world. By 2010, these Partners
plan to reach another 6 million households. As more PCIA Partners establish goals and
report progress, these results will grow.
To assist in achieving the results above, the USEPA supported 10 pilot projects, two in
China and India, and one each in Guatemala, Honduras, Mauritania, Mexico, Nigeria, and
Uganda, to demonstrate effective approaches that increase the use of clean, affordable,
efficient, and safe home cooking and heating practices. Projects included a wide range of
fuels and stove types, including solar, biomass, biogas, coal, charcoal and methanol.
These pilot projects achieved the following results: 1.1 million households educated
about the health impacts of indoor air pollution; 61,000 homes using improved cooking
and/or heating practices, resulting in 250,000 people with reduced exposure to indoor air
pollution; and 700 new small businesses producing and marketing improved cooking
and/or heating technology.
Conclusion
In addition to the significant health benefits for women and children, improved cooking
and heating technologies and fuels have social, economic and environmental benefits.
Women and children spend less time collecting fuel, allowing more time for important
educational, economic and family activities. Clean burning and fuel efficient cooking
and heating practices also reduce carbon emissions, deforestation, erosion, and
desertification caused by burning solid fuels.
Globally, improved household energy practices contribute to achieving the Millennium
Development Goals to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, eradicate
poverty, promote gender equality, and ensure environmental sustainability.
The formation of the PCIA has resulted in greater visibility of and support to address this
public health risk, increased networking among key stakeholders, leveraging of expertise
and resources, sharing of best practices among partners, and filling information gaps
through the development of expert-reviewed tools and resources.
Access to and interaction with experts in other sectors through workshops, forums, and
electronic media has strengthened household energy programs and encouraged them to
build on effective approaches. Ultimately, this has enabled each Partner to achieve
greater results -- more people using clean and efficient cooking and heating technology,
reduced exposure to indoor air pollution, and improved health and socio-economic
conditions.
Additional global participation and funding will expand the progress and success of the
Partnership and its’ members to fully address the serious health risks associated with
indoor air pollution from household energy use, and overcome the barriers to the
transition to clean, efficient, and affordable fuels and technologies.
You can be an integral part of this campaign by: joining the Partnership online at
www.PCIAonline.org; sharing information and best practices from your work with
Partners around the world; participating in Partnership workshops and activities; utilizing
Partnership protocols and guidance in your household energy and health programs; and
sponsoring a PCIA workshop or activity.