In support of the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) awarded pilot project grants to 10 non-profit organizations to implement innovative, community-based programs to reduce indoor air pollution from household energy use. The pilot projects will demonstrate effective approaches for addressing social and cultural barriers to adopting improved cooking and heating practices, developing local markets for improved technology, meeting design and performance guidance for improved technology, and monitoring reduced exposure. The $1.2 million in funding is being provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USEPA.
These two-year grants will increase the use of clean, reliable, affordable, efficient, and safe home cooking and heating practices that reduce people's exposure to indoor air pollution. Collectively, they will:
- Improve health, livelihood, and quality of life by reducing exposure to indoor air pollution in more than 30,000 households (approximately 160,000 people).
- Improve awareness of the dangers of indoor air pollution and the benefits of improved cooking/heating alternatives to more than approximately 1 million people via advertising and public service campaigns, stove demonstrations at markets and in schools, social marketing campaigns, and working with other NGOs and women's groups.
- Result in more than 200 local entrepreneurs starting their own clean cook stove production/distribution business; and a sustainable model for stove dissemination that ensures local empowerment and self-sufficiency;
- Reduce exposure to indoor air pollution in homes adopting new clean technologies by a minimum of 50% - 80%; and
- Test, improve, and market a number of clean household energy technologies, including: improved biomass stoves, retained heat cookers, biogas digester systems, solar cookers, and methanol stoves.
These grants were competitively selected by an international panel of experts from the World Health Organization, Shell Foundation, Italian Ministry of Environment and Forests, USEPA and USAID from over 90 concept proposals and 30 full proposals. Three of these projects are in Latin America - Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras; three are in Africa - Nigeria, Mauritania, and Uganda; and two each will be implemented in India and China.
The USEPA will assess the need to solicit proposals to fill any potential geographical, technological, or strategic gaps in 2005. For more detailed information on each of the pilot projects, click on the links below.
Appropriate Rural Technology Institute, India
Center for Household Energy and Environment, Nigeria
Development Alternatives, India
HELPS International, Guatemala
Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety, China
NEDWA, Mauritania
Solar Household Energy, Mexico
The Nature Conservancy, China
Trees, Water & People, Honduras
Venture Strategies, Uganda