[Stoves] A cookstoves grant from the Gates Foundation gets mixed reviews

Tue Jan 24 11:15:50 CST 2017

Stovers,

Link below to a well-written and timely article about stoves, done be 
Marc Gunther, a professional journalist who has covered stove topics 
before.   In time for our ETHOS conference (and for comments on this 
listserv.).

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Fwd: [New post] A cookstoves grant from the Gates Foundation 
gets mixed reviews
Date: 	Tue, 24 Jan 2017 16:24:37 +0000
From: 	Marc Gunther <marc.gunther at gmail.com>
To: 	Marc Gunther <marc.gunther at gmail.com>

Marc Gunther posted: " Nonprofits that make cookstoves for the global 
poor have not been blessed with an abundance of resources. So  you would 
think that the community of stovers, as they're known, would be pleased 
by a big infusion of money into the sector from the US govern"
Respond to this post by replying above this line

    New post on *Nonprofit Chronicles*

<http://nonprofitchronicles.com/author/marcgunther/> 	

    A cookstoves grant from the Gates Foundation gets mixed reviews
    <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/2017/01/24/a-cookstoves-grant-from-the-gates-foundation-gets-mixed-reviews/>

by Marc Gunther <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/author/marcgunther/>

gloliath_double_flameorange_ef_branded_shadow-600x336

An LPG cookstove, from Envirofit

Nonprofits that make cookstoves for the global poor have not been 
blessed with an abundance of resources. So  you would think that the 
community of stovers, as they're known, would be pleased by a big 
infusion of money into the sector from the US government and the Bill & 
Melinda Gates Foundation <http://www.gatesfoundation.org/>. Nope.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) last fall announced 
<https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-contributes-global-effort-prevent-manage-lung-diseases> 
that, with support from the Gates Foundation, it will fund a $30.5 
million, multi-country, five-year study 
<https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=9207315&icde=31563588&ddparam=&ddvalue=&ddsub=&cr=1&csb=default&cs=ASC> 
to see if cookstoves that burn liquified petroleum gas (LPG) reduce 
deaths and illnesses, especially in women and children who suffer the 
greatest exposure. This is almost surely *the biggest single grant in 
the history of the sector*, and it sets the stage for further 
investments in cookstoves, if the study finds that cleaner LPG stoves 
deliver meaningful health benefits.

A byproduct of crude oil or natural gas, LPG is made of propane or 
butane or both -- it's similar to the fuel that powers backyard gas 
grills in the U.S. -- and it's distributed in poor countries in 12kg 
cylinders. It's easier to get LPG to poor people living without 
electricity than it is build out a grid, says Michael Kelly, the deputy 
managing director of the World LPG Association. "It's a very good 
solution for countries that are rapidly developing," he told me. “You 
can essentially take a cylinder of natural gas and put it on a donkey 
and you can have clean energy anywhere.”

Well, sure, clean energy in the sense that LPG burns cleanly and thus 
shouldn't, if used properly, contribute to the household air pollution 
that causes more than 4 million premature deaths each year,according to 
the World Health Organization (WHO) <http://www.who.int/indoorair/en/>. 
Then again, it's not truly clean because LPG, like all fossil fuels, 
generates CO2 emissions that threaten the health of the planet and its 
inhabitants by contributing to climate change.

That's one reason why some stovers are underwhelmed by the NIH-Gates LPG 
study. Others say that it's clear that LPG stoves will deliver health 
benefits, if properly used, so why do a study? Still others worry that 
the NIH-Gates study could lead funders with deep pockets to favor LPG 
over cookstoves that burn biomass, i.e., wood, charcoal, dung or 
agricultural waste. The vast majority of cookstoves in poor countries 
burn biomass.

So what should we make of the NIH-Gates grant?*As always, nothing is 
simple in the cookstove sector, which has an unfortunate history of 
promising more -- improved health! climate change mitigation! empowered 
women! local jobs! -- than it can deliver. And yet, until the world 
finds a way to get clean energy to the roughly 1.3 billion people who 
lack it, cookstoves are too important to ignore. *

Read more of this post 
<http://nonprofitchronicles.com/2017/01/24/a-cookstoves-grant-from-the-gates-foundation-gets-mixed-reviews/#more-17822>

*Marc Gunther <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/author/marcgunther/>* | 
January 24, 2017 at 10:02 am | Tags: Adam Creighton 
<http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=adam-creighton>, Bill and Melinda 
Gates Foundation 
<http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation>, 
Christa Roth <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=christa-roth>, Dr. 
Gail Rogers <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=dr-gail-rogers>, 
Inyenyeri <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=inyenyeri>, National 
Institutes of Health 
<http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=national-institutes-of-health>, 
StoveTeam International 
<http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?tag=stoveteam-international> | 
Categories: Global health <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?cat=174727>, 
Global poverty <http://nonprofitchronicles.com/?cat=295672> | URL: 
http://wp.me/p5ANrp-4Ds

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