In Search of 100 Million (Truly?) Clean Cookstoves

by Marc Gunther (Nonprofit Chronicles) ... “Why exactly are we ahead with 100 million more wood burning stoves in the world? It’s an output metric and not an impact metric,” says Kevin Starr of Mulago, who wrote a pointed 2014 essay about cookstoves called Getting Beyond Hype in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. “They aren’t clear on what they want to accomplish.”

The name — Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves — is also problematic. A predecessor effort at EPA was called the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. “Clean Indoor Air” is an unambiguous good. “Clean Cookstoves,” not so much, if they aren’t truly clean.

In fairness, the alliance’s website, strategy and position papers all talk about clean fuels as well as well cookstoves. But the real goal should be healthier families. Other benefits–a cleaner environment, more empowered women–will likely follow.

After all, if the goal is to eliminate the household air pollution and the environmental problems caused by burning solid fuels, maybe the answer isn’t cookstoves at all. Donors might have more impact by promoting nuclear power plants, natural gas pipelines, liquid fuels like ethanol or even coal plants to bring clean cooking to the global south.

About this question, the global alliance is unambiguous. Its mission is to “save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.” [Emphasis added.] Harry Stokes, too, says Project Gaia wants to lay the groundwork for functioning markets in ethanol and methanol stoves and fuels, and then get out of the way. My own bias favors regulated markets over government solutions.

If we regard household air pollution as a primarily public health problem, it may be the job of governments, foundations and nonprofits to solve it. We don’t expect markets to eradicate polio or prevent malaria.

What’s encouraging is that more money and brainpower than ever are aimed at solving the myriad problems caused by cooking over smoky, open fires. The alliance is commissioning valuable research, as well as pushing cookstoves into the market. People like Harry Stokes, who have been trying to hack the problem for years, feel a wind at their backs. Stokes, 67, is carrying out work begun by his late father, who started Project Gaia. He feels a responsibility to his father’s legacy. What also keeps him going, he told me, is “the conviction that we’re on the right path.”

That said, there’s no one path to solving the myriad of problems caused by cooking over open fires. To find the right solutions, everyone in the sector needs be clear about what problem, exactly, they are trying to solve and how they intend to measure their impact. READ MORE / MORE and MORE (Stanford Social Innovation Review) and MORE (Project Gaia) and MORE (Fuel Freedom Foundation)