<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="border:0px rgb(221,221,221);outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(63,63,63)"><a href="http://www.cleancooking2017.org/the-forum-daily/day-3-recap/" target="_blank"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Ajay Mathur of Teri is quoted in CCF 2017</font></a><br><br></span></div></div></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="border:0px rgb(221,221,221);outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(63,63,63)"><b style="font-size:18px;font-family:Lora;font-style:italic">"I am delighted that words like ‘ecosystems for developing’ and ‘maintaining’ clean cookstoves and ‘issues on value chains’ are now taken as the norm. I remember when it was rather difficult to get people to give you the time of day when you talked of these things."</b></span></div></div></div></blockquote><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div><font color="#3f3f3f" face="Lora"><span style="font-size:18px"><b><i><br></i></b></span></font></div>It is to GACC CEO's - and Hillary Clinton's - credit that this transformation has happened. While Hillary hasn't been heard from on cookstoves in a long time - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JM-eOiwFOA" target="_blank">she uploaded a video</a> of wonking out with a New Jersey nurse on cookstoves, GACC CEO has shown resilience and tenacity after the loss of political clout with the sad Clinton defeat last year. (In my books, it's the anti-coal plank that cost her traditional Democratic votes, but that's history. Maybe uranium did.) <br><br>The other story is that EPA may finally get its budget for FY2018 which started on 1 October. According to a March 2017 analysis of the proposed EPA budget Blueprint by <a href="http://fedweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/EPA-Budget-Analysis.pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Protection Network</a>, "the Budget Blueprint eliminates funding for EPA’s international climate programs" including "provide technical assistance for reducing their GHG pollution, including from landfills and cook stoves, which pose other serious health threats to families in many developing countries." The current website of <a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-international-and-tribal-affairs-oita#gap" target="_blank">EPA Office of International and Tribal Affairs</a> doesn't mention cookstoves, though GACC is listed under <a href="https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/international-priorities#climate" target="_blank">"international priorities</a>", EPA funding of which may be cut. No telling how much money will be appropriated for <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/epa-who_mou_final_508.pdf" target="_blank">EPA-WHO cooperation</a>, the MOU for which was signed just last year and covers "Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality and Health" and "Climate Change and Health".<br> <br><a href="https://www.devex.com/news/former-dfid-political-adviser-on-uk-aid-direction-and-his-new-role-at-plan-90224" target="_blank">Simon Bishop</a>, an old "stoves" hand at DfID for some five years - after starting at the Shell Foundation stoves work, help establish GACC and serving with UNF - has exited for a private charity. <br><br>Politics trump. <br><br>Not that EPA, DfID had anything to show for blowing money on stoves; they wasted money on building "evidence" and "performance testing" and avoided technical research to support new stove designs. There is only so long you can fool some people by the <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/11/05/clean-cookstoves-wireless-data-study/#t3Bmr_tXfSqn" target="_blank">poverty pornography of household stove smoke</a> and promise the moon - Hillary's $100 billion a year for the Green Climate Fund (GCF). <br><br>Time to declare victory and move on. USEPA and climate were wrong excuses for cookstoves work anyway; USAID has been surprisingly silent or cast aside. World Bank via C-Dev and CSI seems to be the only organization with any record of new technical and financing initiatives. <br><br>GACC should be pulled out of UNF and placed in Teri, with GOI making up for the lost revenue from US government and UKAid, EU committing a $100 m a year in technology development. I am guessing that at least 20 flowers have bloomed in the last ten years, and Teri may have the wherewithal, footprint, and intellectual authority that UNF never had. EPA was just a drunk elephant stomping the ground. <br><br><div>Monies have been made. Papers have been published. Mistakes have been made, if not acknowledged. Now it's time for real work. <br><br>UN Foundation - the fee-for-service owner of GACC - boasts on <a href="https://twitter.com/unfoundation" target="_blank">Twitter</a> of "Connecting You with the UN" (giving the false impression that it is a part of the UN) and tweets "Clean cooking empowers woman, protects forests, improves health." THIS is the same old, same old and shouldn't be given the time of day. <br><br>GACC Secretariat is thin and can be absorbed at Teri or SE4All. Project financing - i.e., for investments and subsidies - should go to MDBs and EU governments. WHO has no business talking about stove standards, distribution chains, and should be put on aDALY revenue model instead of government contributions. A laudable initiative of Hillary Clinton was destroyed by the pay-to-play model of UNF. <br><br>Nikhil</div></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><br><img src="cid:ii_15f5e5fe9c672dde" alt="Inline image 1" width="544" height="544"><br> <div><div><div class="gmail-m_1560674255696013137gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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