EPA Funds Cook Stoves Research to Ameliorate Air Quality and Mitigate Climate Change

May 30, 2014

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By Olatomiwa Bifarin* (Advanced Biofuel USA) If the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) systematic analysis study of 2010 is anything to go by, then by the time you are done reading this article about 35 people would probably be dead just because of the simple act of cooking.

It has been estimated that 3 billion people in the world cook their food with inefficient and polluting cookstoves every day. Engendering 4.3 million deaths annually as a result of exposure to smoke from traditional cook stoves and open fire, implies that a life would be claimed by cookstove smoke in 8 seconds. This mortality rate surpasses the death from malaria, HIV and tuberculosis combined.
On the 27^th of May, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced grant awards to six universities to research cleaner technologies and fuels for cooking, lighting and heating homes. The event which was hosted by the United Nations Foundation’s Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves at the United Nation Foundation building in Washington D.C., was graced by Radha Muthiah, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and Gina McCarthy, Administrator, U.S Environmental Protection Agency, amongst others.

Cookstove Radha Muthiah Executive Director Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

During the opening remarks, Muthiah, touted the extant relationship between the Alliance and EPA as expedient. Such relationship explains the EPA grants towards clean cookstoves research which will be salutary towards the Alliance’s ‘100 by 20’ goal. The 100 by 20 goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. Muthiah also commented on the progress towards the goal, “We look forward to end 2014 with about 12 million households and adding another 30 million households over the next 3 years.”
Administrator McCarthy in her remarks regarded household air pollution as the most exigent and tractable problem of our time. She told a story of a young woman in Peru. “Monica is from Peru in Latin America. Latin America has 166 million people cooking over open fire, 28,000 of which will die prematurely just by cooking alone and half of them would be kids under the age of 5. The grease from cooking would stick on Monica’s skin, the soot would stick to the walls and her three boys are constantly getting sick. Now that Monica has a clean stove, her situation has improved, black smokes has gone from the wall, grease from her skin and the sickness from her kids. This commonsense initiative is really changing lives.”

Gina McCarthy Administator U S Environmental Protection Agency

She concluded her remarks by listing the universities awarded the EPA grants: Colorado State University, University of California Berkeley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota, Yale University and University of Colorado, Boulder.
Almost $9 million was granted to these universities to embark on research projects that would deal with better ways to measure and track pollutions and better ways to deal with it. The research projects would cover 8 countries and span across 3 continents including looking at impacts in United States.
For more information about the EPA grants and research projects: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.rfa/rfa_id/563
It is imperative to note that while this initiative will help abate household air pollution which is currently the fourth biggest health risk in the world, and foster economic development and poverty eradication, it doesn’t stop at that. It will also help in short-term climate change mitigation by the reduction of emissions of climate pollutants like black and brown carbon and in the long-term climate change mitigation by the reduction of emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases, for example carbon dioxide from unsustainably harvested biomass.
Unfortunately, no mention was made of clean ethanol-fueled cookstoves and related pilot programs initiated to address the issues raised at this event. It is unclear if any of the research funds will study use of ethanol-fueled cookstoves as an effective means to achieve the United Nation’s goals.
For more on ethanol-fueled cookstoves, see Project Gaia: http://www.projectgaia.com/index.php for information on one nonprofit initiative. READ MORE

*Olatomiwa Bifarin is studying for his Masters degree in Biotechnology at The Catholic University of America. As an intern at Advanced Biofuels USA, he represents the organization and reports on events in Washington, DC, and nearby areas.