Radha’s Message for February 2013
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Long Beach, CA, where I’m attending TED2013: The Young, the Wise, the Undiscovered. The Alliance’s partner Royal Dutch Shell arranged for me to host a luncheon yesterday and bring the cookstoves story and the Alliance’s mission to some of the inspiring and innovative leaders that typically attend the TED conferences. Our lunch guests included representatives from foundations, corporations, investment groups, and the media, many of whom were completely new to the household air pollution issue and the opportunities offered by clean cookstoves and fuels. You can check out an informative drawing – yes, drawing! – of our conversation here.
The Alliance Secretariat continues to work around the clock to bring our partners and the clean cooking sector an informative and dynamic Forum. There’s just three weeks to go! For those of you joining us in Phnom Penh for the Clean Cooking Forum 2013, we look forward to seeing you. Inside, you’ll find a brief update on the Forum and, as always, you can visit www.cleancooking2013.org for the latest information on the agenda, speakers, and more.
Though former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is on a much-deserved rest after serving as America’s top diplomat for four years, I know that she’ll never truly rest when it comes to advocating for a sustainable market for clean, safe, efficient, and affordable cooking solutions. Did you see what she announced on her second-to-last day in office? Be sure to watch the Alliance’s video of thanks to the Secretary, inside February’s newsletter.
As you may recall, in December’s newsletter, we highlighted evidence recently published in the Lancet suggesting that 4 million people die each year as a result of exposure to household air pollution from cookstove smoke. In addition to currently available global and regional results, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation will release country level estimates on March 5, using an innovative set of visualization tools intended to make results accessible without advanced technical training. We encourage you to visit the website next week to see for yourself how the burden of disease from HAP compares to other leading risk factors in your country and/or region.
Inside the rest of February’s newsletter you’ll read about the training session the Alliance recently convened at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s cookstove testing lab; the first round of Pilot Innovation Fund awardees; a spotlight on our partner GERES Cambodia, who is serving as the Forum’s in-country co-host; and as always, upcoming events, media highlights, and new partners.
Sincerely,
Radha