Beijing, China – Some 2.8 billion people worldwide rely on solid fuels, such as wood, coal, and crop residue to cook and heat their homes. Most of them use primitive open fires or poor-quality stoves that burn solid fuels inefficiently with poor combustion, releasing toxic pollutants.
The smoke from these stoves harms the environment and can be blamed for 4 million premature deaths each year, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.
How can these people have better access to cleaner and more efficient cooking and heating?
At the East Asia and Pacific Clean Stove Initiative (CSI) Forum that took place in Beijing on April 28, participants from China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Honduras, and Guatemala shared their thoughts.
The Forum is part of the East Asia and Pacific Clean Stove Initiative, a regional program that aims to achieve universal access to modern cooking and heating solutions in the region, particularly focusing on poor and rural households, who are likely to continue using solid fuels beyond 2030.
With funding support from the Australian Government, Asia Sustainable and Alternative Energy Program, and Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, the initiative includes four country-specific programs (China, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Lao PDR) and a regional forum to promote collaboration, learning, and knowledge-sharing on access to modern energy at the household level.
Representatives from China, Indonesia, Mongolia and Lao PDR introduced their respective programs and talked about the opportunities and challenges in expanding the clean stoves market.
Seumkham Thoummavongasa, Director, Ministry of Energy and Mines of Lao PDR, said that for his country, established distribution channels, high demand, low production costs, and consumer interest provided good prospects for the clean stove industry to grow. But certain challenges linger, such as limited skilled labor capacity, limited standardization which results in minimum quality control.
Mongolia faces similar issues, said Erdenetsogt, Secretary, National Committee for Air Pollution Reduction. Besides, in Mongolia, due to lack of regulation, herders who received a subsidized clean stove tend to re-sell it for income.
To resolve these challenges, Wang Jiuchen, Deputy Director, Rural Energy and Environment Agency, Ministry of Agriculture of China, emphasized on the importance of a synergy between government, market and education of rural residents. “Before in China, we provided agricultural skills trainings to rural residents. Now we realized it is also important to educate them about modern and ‘civilized’ living so that they will recognize small things such as a clean stove can make a big impact on their quality of life,” he said.
“We have launched the call for stove technologies in February and will soon launch the call for market aggregators to invite interested private sector to develop the clean stove market in Indonesia,” said Anna Rufaida, Head of Subdirectorate of Investment and Cooperation, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia.