Recipe for Success: Improving Cook Stoves in Lao PDR
“Over thirty experts, academics and entreprenuers from around the region gathered in Vientiane on March 14-16 to discuss and test cleaner, more efficient cookstoves.”
The Stove Design & Testing Workshop, the first of its kind in Lao PDR, bought together participants from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, as well as trainers from the US-based Aprovecho Research Center.”
The workshop was organised by SNV and the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy (LIRE) and generously funded by USAID and US EPA as part of their innovative Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI).
Indoor air quality is a huge issue in Laos, with the WHO estimating that smoke from cooking causes 6,000 premature deaths in the country every year. The use of traditional biomass fuels (wood and charcoal) is also a major concern, with 69% of rural Lao people depending on these fuels as their primary energy sources (ADB 2006). Currently, 70% of Laos’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from deforestation (WWF, 2010), making fuel and forest use major issues for the country.”