Radha’s Message for March 2014
Dear Friends,
There have been a number of very exciting developments for the Alliance and the clean cookstoves and fuels sector over the last few weeks. In the U.S., Senator Susan Collins introduced the “Clean Cookstoves Support Act,” with Senator Dick Durbin’s support, which strengthens the U.S. Government’s commitment to the adoption of clean cookstoves around the world and, if passed, would require the Secretary of State to advance the goals of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
I was also very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with Minister Xie Zhenhua of China’s National Development and Reform Commission at our offices in Washington, D.C. where we discussed opportunities for further collaboration, growth of the cookstoves and fuels market in China and the the role that clean cookstoves and fuels can play in China’s work on south-south collaboration and climate change mitigation.
In addition, the Alliance held a Guatemala Country Action Planning workshop in partnership with the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy, the Guatemalan Cluster of Improved Cookstoves and Clean Fuels, and the World Bank. And in Switzerland, the Alliance helped convene partners at the Gold Standard Conference that are involved in cookstoves carbon products for a discussion of the Alliance’s strategy to stimulate demand for carbon credits and advance our climate finance strategy.
In conjunction with International Women’s Day (IWD) and the 58th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Alliance participated in a series of events designed to highlight the crucial relevance of our work to the lives of girls and women around the world. For example, in New York, the Alliance hosted a breakfast on “The Role of Clean Energy Access in Achieving Gender Equality for Women and Girls” with U.K. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development Lynn Featherstone and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Cathy Russell. Worldwide, the Alliance was featured in media sources, including Op-Eds in China and Ghana, and in articles discussing the connections between clean cooking solutions, humanitarian situations, and access to energy.
The Alliance team is looking forward to continuing its productive engagement with global stakeholders to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient cooking solutions. In particular, I am looking forward to the Ghana National Clean Cookstoves and Fuels Conference during the week of April 7th, 2014.
Warm regards,
Radha