Follow the coverage on Clinton's $50m for clean cookstoves

"This could be as transformative as bednets or even vaccines."
Hillary Clinton, CGI, 21 Sept 2010.
Video.
Prospects Rise for Clean Cooking in Poor Places (New York Times)
Clinton unveils U.S. funds for clean cookstove push (Reuters)
Hillary on Fire About Clean Cookstoves (Daily Beast)
Secretary of State Clinton announces global cookstove initiative (Nature)
Hillary Clinton, cookstoves and "The Girl Effect". Watch a short film about why girls hold the key to transforming the world (Salon)
How Hillary Clinton's clean stoves will help African women (Guardian)

For more on stoves: Stoking up a cookstove revolution (Ashden Awards)
See also: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and Hillary Clinton calls clean cookstoves a "cross-cutting issue"
And for some Ashden award-winning stove projects, go to: TWP/AHDESA, GERES Cambodia and Aprovecho/SSM.

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Hillary Clinton calls cookstoves a "cross-cutting issue"

Update: The Guardian columnist Madeleine Bunting writes about Clinton and cookstoves: "Finally, this huge story is percolating through to the mainstream ... This is a problem that does not require expensive technology. It is about using fuel efficiently. Watch this video."

The video link is to Ashden award-winner Aprovecho.

The New York Times reports that later this morning Hillary Clinton will announce $50 million in seed money for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

Mrs. Clinton called the problem of indoor pollution from primitive cookstoves a “cross-cutting issue” that affects health, the environment and women’s status in much of the world.

The NYT says the Alliance has set itself the goal of providing 100 million clean-burning stoves to villages in Africa, Asia and South America by 2020.

Although the toxic smoke from the primitive stoves is one of the leading environmental causes of death and disease, and perhaps the second biggest contributor to global warming, after the industrial use of fossil fuels, it has long been neglected by governments and private aid organizations.

See also: Ashden Awards report Stoking up a cookstove revolution and Ashden award-winning stove projects: TWP/AHDESA, GERES Cambodia and Aprovecho/SSM.

More: Shell, UN to Back $100 Million Plan for Clean Energy Cookstoves
Ashden award-winner GERES Cambodia have sold their one millionth stove

Update: Anne Wheldon, Senior Adviser at the Ashden Awards, says:

This is something that need not cost much, but it has got to be done right, for the particular country and culture, and it must be what people who do the cooking actually want. I think Andrew Mitchell, the UK development minister, is arguing at the Millenium Development Goals conference for 'spend aid better' rather than 'spend more'. A lot can be achieved at a comparatively low cost provided that it is done in the right way.

pic: Escorts Foundation, Pakistan - Ashden winners 2004

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Trees, Water and People awarded Seal of Excellence

Fort Collins, CO - Environmental nonprofit organization, Trees, Water & People (TWP) has been awarded the prestigious “Best in America” Seal of Excellence from Independent Charities of America (ICA). The seal is given only to members of ICA who meet the highest standards of public accountability, program effectiveness, and cost effectiveness. Of the 1 million charities operating in the United States, only five percent meet these expectations, and fewer than two thousand charities have been awarded the exclusive seal.

Trees, Water & People is dedicated to improving people’s lives by helping communities to protect, conserve and maintain the natural resources upon which their long-term well-being depends. They develop and manage continuing reforestation, watershed protection, renewable energy, appropriate technology, and environmental education programs in Latin America and the American West. TWP’s conservation efforts have been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally.

To learn more about TWP, or to get involved, please visit www.treeswaterpeople.org

TWP won an Ashden Award in 2005 for their work with ADHESA in Honduras, developing the Justa stove to reduce reduce wood consumption and air pollution from smoke.

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