US to host event in Chennai to raise awareness on cook stoves
Sep 24,2011
The United States will host an event in Chennai to raise public awareness about the need for ‘clean’ cookstoves in India and around the globe. It has also entered into an alliance with silicon technology company Dow-Corning, the Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry as part of diplomatic and technical activities to give a push to cook stoves and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
Since its launch one year ago by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves has become an important US diplomatic and development priority. It has roped in actress Julia Roberts and celebrity chef Jose Andres to serve as its Ambassadors. On the first-year anniversary of the alliance, the United States has made additional financial commitments to the alliance of up to USD 55 million, taking the total commitment of the United States in the first five years to up to USD 105 million.
The funds will be used to research effective strategies to influence behaviour change related to cookstove adoption in Uganda and India and provide 30,000 stoves to drought-affected women and their families in the Horn of Africa. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention 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 with respect to cookstoves.
