Are 'Clean' Cookstove Alternatives a Solution or Part of the Problem?
Cooking over an open fire or with traditional cookstoves are common practices worldwide that some experts say kill millions of people every year, through indoor air pollution, and cause massive environmental impacts from natural resource depletion to climate change.
This has led to an international movement to build a better, cleaner cookstove.
BURN Manufacturing in Nairobi is one of the biggest players in this major global initiative to get cleaner solid-fuel cookstoves into the hands of the poor. But some say this approach, by BURN and other social enterprises focused on building a better cookstove, is contributing to the problem they aim to solve.
According to the World Health Organization about 3 billion people worldwide – mostly with low income and in developing countries – burn wood, charcoal, or dung on open fires or poorly functioning stoves to cook food and heat their homes. WHO estimates that millions die every year from lung and heart disease caused by cooking with solid fuels, and millions live with chronic respiratory diseases.
Ollivier Girard/CIFOR