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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Thanks, Nikhil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Kirk asks “</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">Thus, it could be argued that LPG is found anyway will be used somewhere no matter what – autos,
petrochemicals, or being flared are <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> main other uses besides households. Why not divert as much as possible <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> its highest social value use,
cooking for <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> poor?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because of the high cost of doing so.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because of the bloody inconvenience of trundling gas cylinders around.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because public transport operators won’t allow it in their vehicles.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because there are better things to do with the money.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because some people perceive it as a dangerous cooking system.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because it creates unemployment throughout the entire biomass fuel chain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because it uses up precious foreign exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because it creates dependence on foreign suppliers of a commodity known to be controlled and price-manipulated by a cartel that acts capriciously in its own interest (globally, in June 2008, for
example).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Because none of its technologies (carriage, distribution and combustion) can be managed by locals in most countries – they are reduced to being mere consumers of the products of others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">In any case the last sentence is not correct. The pitch throughout the piece was medical. It should have read at the end, “Why not divert as much as possible to its highest medical value use, cooking
for the poor?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">The highest <i>social value</i> of LPG is unknown. If you asked Indonesian cooks what it is, they would probably reply that making tea on comment has the highest social impact.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">I detect once again in Kirk’s writing that chimney stoves that emit nothing into the room are still ruled out, as are, in the long term, biomass, coal and kerosene. Kerosene is a longer chain ‘paraffin’
than LPG. Opposition to it makes no sense. Biomass can be burned both in clear-combustion stoves or in lesser devices fitted with chimneys.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">The reduction to exposure to inherent emissions is accomplished by increasing the efficiency of the devices and dilution to appropriate levels – just as for any other pollutant like CO or SO<sub>2</sub>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">If the USA has a surfeit of LPG, let them market it to the millions of wealthy homes that are currently switching from gas and oil to wood fuels for space heating and social enjoyment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Biomass fuels are not the choice of the poor only.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Nikhil Desai [mailto:pienergy2008@gmail.com]
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 29-Jun-17 05:47<br>
<b>To:</b> Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Kirk Smith: A challenge to the biomass stove community<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Below a Guest Editorial <span style="font-size:13.5pt"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082617304635" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#5C5C5C">Why both gas and biomass
are needed today to address the solid fuel cooking problem in India: A challenge to the biomass stove community</span> </a></span>by Prof. Kirk Smith in the journal Energy for Sustainable Development (June 2017;
<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53856e1ee4b00c6f1fc1f602/t/590b78d49de4bb6e66c97095/1493924052510/ESD+editorial+on+biomas.pdf">
available</a> for free on his website). I wonder what you all think. It is addressed only to the current Indian situation. <br>
<br>
The title acknowledges that the "solid fuel cooking problem" is to be solved by both gas and biomass, often a "solid fuel". (Apart from coal-fired electricity, which too has eliminated a lot of solid fuel or kerosene requirements in cooking and heating water/space.)<br>
<br>
He says, "<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">Although there are far better biomass cookstoves than in the past, they have not progressed to the point that they are equivalent to gas in terms of reliability, flexibility,
durability, efficiency, and cleanliness." </span>Still, <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">"<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">It is not enough just <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> have <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> cleaner
cooking technology sitting in <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> shop, what is needed is <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> find an effective way <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> promote
and provide these clean and efficient products <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> 25 million households who will still need them in 2025. <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">The</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> industry
is going <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> have <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> think well beyond <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the t</span>echnology itself, <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> how <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> disseminate
at <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> scale needed and promote consistent usage over time and reduce use of traditional methods. In <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> places needed. <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">To</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> women
who need it."</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
Seems like this is his second epiphany, after the first in 2012 that young women in India were immediately taken in by a new woodstove that "Cooks Like Gas!" And this is also his second challenge to the biomass stove community. Back in November 2014, announcing
the WHO Guidelines for Solid Fuel Use in Households, he had written,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">"Beginning this week, for <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> first time in human history,<u> it will no longer be possible <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> claim <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> is
truly "improved" or "clean"</u> without reference <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <u>authoritative global set of health-based guidelines</u>.... Notably, this document formalizes what was only stated conceptually in <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> 2005
AQGs, which is that <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> guidelines should apply in every
<u>non-occupational micro-environment where people spend significant time </u>-- indoor or outdoor. ... <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">The</span> document also addresses chimney stoves as well as having sections on coal and kerosene as household
fuels -- discouraging both because of apparent extra toxicities...</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">. <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il"><u>The</u></span><u> quantitative recommendations will be <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">challenge</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">community</span> in
that, in keeping with <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> health evidence, truly low emission rates of unvented stoves will be needed <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> protect health adequately. We firmly
hope that <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> ongoing process of creating <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> standards under <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> ISO process will
adopt these recommendations, as was agreed previously.. I might add in this context, that newer evidence since 2005 on <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> health effects of combustion air pollution, as for example found in <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> latest
Global Burden of Disease estimates, would indicate that when <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> next revision of <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> AQGs is done (as now planned), <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> limits
will become even lower. <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">The</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">community</span> thus should probably therefore consider
what this document recommends as likely <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> tighten further over time."</u></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">(Emphasis added. Presumably, occupational exposure of children in Indian commercial kitchens and </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I for one don't believe that the WHO "Guidelines" and Emission Target Rates for Tier 4 are "health-based" - a fake "health metric" generated precisely so as to threaten non-existent regulatory control "likely to tighten" further. They are
not "authoritative global set" nor based on "newer evidence" -- just model estimates based on unverifiable or easily refutable assumptions and spurious data.
<br>
<br>
Leave my quibbling aside. His new "performance metrics" of "reliability, flexibility, durability" are a leap beyond the faith of TC 285 (that voluntary standards will flood the market with better biomass stoves). His challenge - "how to disseminate at the scale
needed" reflects a lesson from India: the Indian Advanced Biomass Stoves project went "<a href="http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/smoke-india-perfect-cookstove">Up in Smoke"</a> - the fire may be relit - and the fracking revolution changed the oil and
gas industry, handing over Modi a chance to rekindle his predecessor's LPG promotion scheme (which had little to do with avoiding DALYs).
<br>
<br>
Only time will tell how many Indians' premature deaths are avoided - by 2025, compared to say 2015 - by some $100 billion cumulative subsidy over the lifetimes of the future dead. (The total number of deaths in India will rise because of aging, and separating
HAP from other air pollution exposures and diseases they contribute to will require even more heroic assumptions). But millions of users seem to want to use gas and electricity? <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">This new challenge is both appropriate and necessary -- how is that "last mile" or "last 100 mile" user population going to be reached where it is too difficult for oil companies and electricity companies to reach?
<br>
<br>
If biomass stoves can deliver good enough reliability, flexibility, and durability - not "like gas" necessarily - for the "right markets", they will not be "siting in the shop". Time to rethink the problem and the solution. (It's the economy and versatility,
not thermodynamics.) <br>
<br>
Just aim to produce contextually appropriate, usable, marketable stoves with minds planted firmly in those contexts, not Switzerland. It doesn't matter what high priests in Swiss mountains (WHO, ISO, GSF) say and do. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Nikhil <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">------------------------<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#5C5C5C;background:white">Why both gas and biomass are needed today to address the solid fuel cooking problem in India: A challenge to the biomass stove community</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#316C9D;background:white"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082617304635" target="_blank">Kirk R. Smith</a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2017.04.001" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;background:white">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2017.04.001</span></a> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">Before 150 years ago, the entire world used solid fuels for cooking, biomass and coal. Now more than 60 percent use gas and/or electricity
– fuels that are basically clean at use. This is serious progress in terms of air pollution and health impacts, even if there are close to 3 billion people who have not yet been able to change.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">Although there are far better biomass cookstoves than in the past, they have not progressed to the point that they are equivalent to gas in
terms of reliability, flexibility, durability, efficiency, and cleanliness. Confirmatory evidence is that few, if any, women who have the option will change from gas to biomass, but many tens of millions do the reverse every year when given the chance. New
biomass stoves are still coming, however, and we can hope that some will perform well enough over time in village households to be true competitors.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">Cost and accessibility of gas fuels is still a barrier, and has led to a slower growth of gas than might have occurred with active policies
to expand both access and supply to the poor. In India, for example, although growing at about 6 percent a year, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)/PNG (piped natural gas) grew only fast enough to cover growth in the middle class. About 700 million of the poor
were stuck in the <i><span style="border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm">chulha</span></i> (open cookstove) trap for 25 years at least. Until recently, there were no special programs or efforts to accelerate growth in this population.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">Starting in 2015, the GOI and OMCs (Government of India and the 3 oil marketing companies that market LPG) embarked on three major programs
to actively promote LPG to the poor – each pioneering, aggressive, and relying heavily on both sophisticated social marketing and what is summarized in India as “JAM” (electronic bank accounts, biometric ID cards, and mobile phones). The first program, Pahal,
shifted to paying subsidy fuel payments into people’s bank accounts and thus all LPG is now sold at international rates in the market, greatly reducing diversion of LPG to the non-household sector. The second, “Give it Up,” persuaded middle-class households
to give up their subsidies to connect the poor. The third, Ujjwala, underway now, will provide connections to a total of 50 million poor households by 2019 and has reached 20 million already by April 2017.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">In addition, although starting from a small base, PNG connections have been growing at more than 11% annually with a goal of 20 million by
early next decade. Each of these frees up LPG to be moved to rural areas and reduces the LPG import burden.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">The result is a remarkable increase in the historically modest expansion of clean fuel connections. The country expects to cover more than
90% of all households early next decade, although the official target is currently 80 percent by 2019. This at least doubles the historical rate of growth in clean cookfuel.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">What is the cost of the LPG program in India? Not so easy to say because in 2015 the program first greatly cut the inherent waste (“leakage”)
in the past subsidy system, saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year that was going to restaurants, etc instead of households, although difficult to estimate because of changes in world petroleum prices that were occurring as well. In addition, it persuaded,
to date, some 13 million middle-class households to give up their subsidy that was shifted to poor households, something like a $1.5 billion zero-sum internal “foreign aid” program over 10 years from the well-to-do to the poor. Much of the additional funding
came from the CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds required to be spent by corporations by recent changes in Indian tax laws. The GOI has committed $1.2 billion today to the current program through 2019, but this is less than the other major inputs
and probably results in a net savings to the taxpayer from the situation before 2014. It was a brilliant idea to treat the old LPG subsidy as an asset, if shifted and targeted well, rather than a liability and embarrassment as most of us had thought.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">I might note that none of this came from the health or environment sectors, which nevertheless will be benefiting. Nor has it affected the
budget of the renewable energy ministry, which still runs the biomass stove and biogas programs.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;background:white">As we all know, whenever a new technology of any sort is adopted, it rarely displaces the old instantly. High usage is still needed as well
as reduction in use of the old polluting technology for full benefits to be obtained. As LPG seems nearly universally aspirational in India and the GOI/OMC programs have found a way to provide access to hundreds of millions of people,
<u>my and others research agendas now focus on ways to enhance usage – to shorten the “stacking” period in stove parlance, i.e. to substantially reduce the use of biomass a</u>s well. This is typical for health interventions – not enough just to deliver condoms,
bednets, latrines, etc. – ways are needed to incentivize people to use them and to stop the unhealthy traditional practices.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.75pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">Now <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> bottom line in terms of advanced <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> stoves. LPG (plus
some natural gas and electricity) cooking for 90% of <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> population, even if achieved, still leaves some 150 million using poorly functioning traditional chulhas next decade. By itself, this population
would be <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> eighth largest country in <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> world, and this is just in India. There is <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> huge
opportunity <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> provide cleaner and more efficient stoves <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> these people who are not going <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> be
able <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> afford or have access <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> gas in <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> next 15 years. As well as those in other
countries. Divide <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> market into its appropriate segments and plan accordingly.</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.75pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">One of <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> lessons of <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> LPG experience in India, however, has
not yet been fully taken onboard by <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">community</span> – <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> implications
of scale. With 18,000 local distributors, each with 30-40 employees operating house <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> house, and plans <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> hire 10,000 more distributors underway, <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> LPG
industry will soon have an army of <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> half million outside of cities <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> wield in promoting and servicing its product locally. And <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> well-functioning
infrastructure from port <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> household <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> keep it going. And <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> high degree of quality
control and transparency (national website with every LPG customer) and moving toward near universal cashless transactions via JAM. This is substantial job creation and contribution <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> national
economic agenda.</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.75pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">LPG is <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> unique fossil fuel. No one looks or drills for it, but it comes as <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> byproduct
these days nearly all from natural gas development. With great expansion of natural gas from shale gas (“fracking”), there is suddenly <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> surfeit of LPG globally – <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> USA
itself has gone <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-aqj">in three years</span> from <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> net importer <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> largest
exporter in history. Thus, it could be argued that LPG is found anyway will be used somewhere no matter what – autos, petrochemicals, or being flared are <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> main other uses besides households. Why not
divert as much as possible <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> its highest social value use, cooking for <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> poor? In any case, all projections indicate <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> large
LPG/PNG supply for decades ahead although, of course, projections in this industry have sometimes gone astray.</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.75pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E">Thus, I end by posing <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">community</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> same <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">challenge</span> posed
once <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> Indian LPG <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">community</span>. It is not enough just <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> have <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> cleaner
cooking technology sitting in <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> shop, what is needed is <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> find an effective way <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> promote
and provide these clean and efficient products <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> 25 million households who will still need them in 2025. <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">The</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">stove</span> industry
is going <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> have <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> think well beyond <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the t</span>echnology itself, <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> how <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> disseminate
at <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> scale needed and promote consistent usage over time and reduce use of traditional methods. In <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> places needed. <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">To</span> <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> women
who need it.</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">
<span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm">Kirk</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm"> R <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">Smith</span></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#2E2E2E"> is
professor of global environmental health at <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> University of California Berkeley and <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">a</span> principal of <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> Collaborative
Centre for Air Pollution Policy in New Delhi. He has worked with advanced <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">biomass</span> stoves in India and elsewhere since <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">the</span> 1980s and now focuses
his research on ways <span class="gmail-m-7742256053931530306gmail-il">to</span> enhance usage of clean fuels such as LPG.</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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