[Stoves] News: Dublin deaths from "renewable energy" - wood and peat heating

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear NIkhil
"From May 2019 it will be illegal to burn unprocessed coal in Ulaanbaatar in spite of that city having the most advanced coal stoves designed in a purpose-built research facility.  There is a distance between the rule makers and the product they are ruling."

>1. Is it time to accept defeat, despite some 15 years of World Bank effort, and go home?

No, it is just a complex environment within which to work. It is a functioning democracy and air pollution is a useful stick with which to beat the government in power.  There is no doubt that external actors in the form of “donors” have made the situation worse by bringing their (domestic) agendas into the city making all sorts of claims, in order to experiment in ways they are not able to at home.

It is likely the private sector will bring better and valued stoves to market with or without help from the public sector agencies. I doubt a raw coal ban is enforceable. If it worked, there will be problems. People may burn more tires, which are quite good fuel.

>2. What faith can still be had that all that needs to be done is accept ISO TC-285 "voluntary" performance standards and magic "truly health protective" solid fuel stoves will emerge?
That is an interesting question. As the problem is not a fuel problem, but a stove design one, changing city to electric heating (for example) would cost billions and impoverish the country.  That is hardly “healthy” from several points of view. Plus there is serious reluctance to electrify sections of the city everyone knows full well are “unserviceable”, meaning piped water and sewage. It is too steep, cold, rocky, permafrost-y and poorly laid out.
One way this can be addressed it to build a new city, perhaps out by the new airport.  Dream on. In the meantime there are affordable ways to basically eliminate the smoke from domestic combustion of coal.
"Unfortunately the mania about not burning the only fuels most people can afford is not very well informed."
>3. Rather, ignorance and fashion prevail. I am thinking of Kirk Smith's consulting piece for the Mongolia Ministry of Health.
I recall it was for the Minister of the Environment but that is a hazy recollection. The prognostications did not hold up well over the next 4 years.  The air quality scenario he proposed as likely if all solid fuel combustion were immediately stopped, the population did not increase and the development of a miracle stove combustor … plus whatever else it included, he called Scenario B.  It was exceeded in terms of improvement without changing the fuel, without stopping in-migration, and with a 9-fold increase in the number of cars.  That was accomplished over 4 years. This proves that sticking with raw coal and having a sensible stove replacement programme “delivers health”.
>With his long-held untenable belief that unprocessed solid fuels are dirty by definition, I can imagine this ban on unprocessed fuels can be traced to the Health folks poking their nose where it does not belong.
Yup. Front and centre.  If it was true, we should worry.
Regards
Crispin
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