Climate, Environment, and Conservation: The United States Commits up to $55 Million in Additional Funding to Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

September 22, 2011

Since its launch one year ago by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves has become an important U.S. diplomatic and development priority. The Obama Administration’s unprecedented financial and whole-of-government commitment to the Alliance and its mission to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient household solutions has positioned the cookstoves sector to achieve unprecedented global progress.

On its one year anniversary, the United States has made additional financial commitments to the Alliance of up to $55 million, bringing the total United States commitment to up to $105 million in the first five years. Every U.S. federal agency that was part of the original commitment to the Alliance is meeting or exceeding their commitments towards diplomacy, applied research, capacity building, stove testing, and field implementation and evaluation.

Seven U.S. Government agencies have made new or additional commitments to the Alliance:

Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) – up to $50 million
OPIC will provide up to $50 million in debt financing or insurance over three years to support projects that provide clean, consistent, and affordable access to energy and energy savings through the manufacture, sale, and purchase of cookstoves.

Department of State/ U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – $2.5 million
The State Department and USAID have expanded their original commitment of $9.02 million to reach the total of $11.57 million. The $11.57 million will include:

• Funding to research effective strategies to influence behavior change related to cookstove adoption in Uganda and India; and
• Funding to provide 30,000 stoves to drought-affected women and their families in the Horn of Africa impacting a total of 200,000 individuals. This effort will focus on the region in and around Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, in partnership with the World Food Programme.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – $1.2 million
CDC has more than doubled its original commitment to build on and expand health evaluation and research efforts begun last year in Kenya, Guatemala, and India.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)
NOAA will lend its technical expertise and instruments to assess the climate benefits of cookstove efforts to better quantify soot emissions from both traditional and more efficient stoves, scientifically characterize the properties of the soot produced, and evaluate and assess the climate benefits of soot emission reductions.

Peace Corps
Peace Corps volunteers will expand efforts with local and international partners to facilitate the construction, purchase of, and proper use of improved cookstoves in 11 countries. Current efforts have reached more than 2,500 families in Latin America and more than 1,000 families in Africa.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
USDA will lend its technical expertise on key policy questions facing the cookstoves sector and the Alliance, including those related to the production of clean biomass-based cooking fuels (e.g. ethanol, biochar, biomass pelletization) and forestry impacts and management.

In September 2010, Secretary Clinton announced the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership led by the United Nations Foundation, to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance’s 100 by 20 goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.