Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires—the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people in the developing world—causes 2 million premature deaths annually, with women and young children the most affected, according to the
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (the Alliance). The issue of defining "clean" cookstoves and mitigating these risks is of critical importance to both the developing and developed worlds.
Over the past year, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has worked with the United Nations Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA), and the Alliance to develop a strategy for advancing global consensus standards for clean and efficient cookstoves.
| | 100 Million Cookstoves by 2020
PCIA and the Alliance are working with more than 540 partners in 117 countries to achieve the adoption of 100 million clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020. Developing globally recognized standards that are widely accepted by the stove community and adopted by country governments could spur wider deployment of clean cookstoves in a number of ways, including defining what is an "improved cookstove" for users, stove makers, and policy makers; and enabling the rating of stoves by efficiency, safety, durability, affordability, and cleanliness, while allowing for differences in local conditions and user behavior. | |
A proposal was made public for comment by U.S. stakeholders in August 2011 recommending a new area of activity for cookstove standards within the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO). [
see related article] As a result, PCIA and the Alliance are pursuing an International Workshop Agreement (IWA) to advance the efforts of developing globally recognized consensus standards for cookstoves.
First International Workshop on Cookstove Standards
The first ISO International Workshop on cookstove standards will be held February 28-29, 2012, in Amsterdam. Organized jointly by PCIA and the Alliance, with ANSI serving as the secretariat, the workshop marks a first step toward moving the technical work of the standards development into the ISO arena.
Participation is encouraged from all stakeholders including stove manufacturers, implementers, researchers, academics, stove testers, and other members of the cookstove community. The draft agenda and other event details can be found here.
Register online here.
For further information on the International Workshop and on the IWA, please contact Leslie McDermott, ANSI program manager for international development ([email protected]).
Questions regarding registration should be directed to [email protected].
