Historic Paris Agreement on Climate Drives Scale Up of Solutions, Including Clean Cooking
On Earth Day at the United Nations, 175 countries reaffirmed their commitment to ambitious climate action, coming together to sign the Paris Agreement that unites nearly every nation in a common endeavor against climate change. This Agreement was the culmination of years of effort that concluded last December in Paris when states agreed to work to reduce emissions and stave off the worst impacts of climate change.
Alliance CEO Radha Muthiah joined heads of state, ministers, climate advocates, business executives, and partners at the ceremony in New York, where a record-breaking number of countries officially signed on to the agreement, with more signatures expected in the coming months. As governments, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations scale up their efforts to address climate change and protect the environment, it is increasingly well-recognized that proven solutions like clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels are required to simultaneously reduce climate and environmental degradation, as well as advance sustainable development objectives.
“This Agreement signifies hope and dedication to addressing the shared challenge of climate change, while also instigating scaled up action on a wide range of mitigation efforts, including clean cooking,” said Muthiah. “As countries move toward implementation of the Paris Agreement, clean cooking will play a key role in helping reduce harmful emissions and driving a sustainable path of development forward.”
The work of the 1,500 Alliance partners is already directly contributing to the aims laid out in the Paris Agreement, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals that governments adopted last September. To support and bolster these efforts, the Alliance continues to help ensure that clean cooking is a global environmental development priority. As part of their efforts, the Alliance has produced advocacy materials and held multiple convenings and engagements on the issue, including a workshop at the COP21 meetings in Paris last year that brought together over 60 leading climate and health scientists, practitioners, donors, and investors to discuss the health and climate co-benefits of clean cooking.