The Igniting Change Report

Distilling the Central Information:

1. What is the central development issue of the Igniting Change Report?

The world has seen tremendous and exponential growth in technology, but to this day, the rampant use of primitive means of cooking such as open fire stoves and wood-burning stoves is observed across the world. The Igniting Change Report aims to highlight the various environmental, financial and health-related dangers that are attached to the use of rudimentary and inefficient cookstoves. The report also attempts to examine how the lack of access to clean cooking methods affects women and children in particular. It is estimated that the inhalation of toxic substances resulting from unsafe, primitive cookstoves lead to nearly two million deaths of women and children die each year (Cordes 2011, 4). The report advocates the replacement of traditional open fire stoves with environmentally responsible and safer choices. The report gives a comprehensive account of the various hazards attached to conventional means of cooking. It highlights the need to adopt clean and safe cooking practices. It shows how the steps and initiatives being taken to eradicate rudimentary cooking practices.

2. Why do you think the issue is important, especially for developing countries?

Over the past few centuries, some parts of the world have taken advantage of technological advancements to transition from conventional biomass fuels (wood, animal dung, crop residues such as rice husks) to alternatives such as electricity and fossil fuels (kerosene or gas). Developing countries have not been as successful in eliminating the use of rudimentary cookstoves. The United Nations Environment Programmed and World Health Organization Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) have confirmed that the most alarming air pollution conditions and the largest indoor pollutant concentrations and exposures are recorded in rural and urban areas of the developing world (Staton and Harding 1998). This is particularly rampant in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where a third of the urban population and the vast majority of the rural poor rely on crude, outmoded cookstoves. The pace of technological development in these countries is relatively slow. Moreover, people living in these parts of the world lack awareness about the harmful impacts of these cooking methods, with regards to the environment, economy and health. Less industrialized countries a much higher proportion of energy at the household level, primarily for cooking and lighting. According to the International Energy Agency, 100 million more people will use traditional biomass fuels in 2030 (Cordes 2011, 10). This paints a troubling picture for the future and suggests that the world will continue to observe the extensive use of traditional cookstoves in these developing countries in the years to come.

 

3. How can it lead to poverty reduction?

The use of clean, safe cookstoves and fuels has several benefits, including poverty reduction. In urban areas, fuel for cookstoves has to be purchased. Bwenge (2011) conducted research in Tanzania study the effects of adopting improved wood stoves on the welfare of rural women in Kibaha district, Tanzania. A total of twenty respondents participated in the research and compared their experience of using traditional firewood stoves with improved wood stoves. It was found that improved wood stove reduced firewood consumption for more than 50 per cent. Improved wood stove led to greater generation of income. Sixty-five per cent of the respondents reported that traditional wood stove had contributed to the reduced income of their family, because of the copious amount of time spent on firewood collection and cooking. This left them with little time to engage in small businesses like gardening, fish vending and fruit selling. As the women in these villages are not employed in the formal sector, they mainly depend upon small businesses for their income.

4. In what ways do traditional cookstoves contribute to climate change?

The impacts of traditional cookstoves on the environment have been devastating. The increase in population leads to an increase in the demand for fuel for domestic purposes. Often, local communities and refugee populations compete over limited resources. The increased demand for fuel puts pressure on the limited resources in the surrounding environment, and large areas of tree cover are cleared to supply fuel-wood. In many developing nations, electricity services in urban areas are unreliable and fail to reach poor sectors. Many urban households are unable to afford kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), therefore, it is agreed that the urban demand for fuel-wood is a larger cause of deforestation than that of rural areas. In countries like Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia, and Guatemala (Cordes 2011, 13), the chief cause of deforestation is charcoal production. When forests are cleared or burnt, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere, mainly in the form of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. In this way, deforestation – resulting from the need for fuel-wood – contributes to climate change. The incomplete combustion of solid fuels in conventional and inefficient traditional cookstoves leads to the emission of short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane, as well as other greenhouse gases, like carbon monoxide. Black carbon (more commonly referred to as soot) has a significant warming impact on the climate, and its effect is second only to carbon dioxide. Globally, 25% of black carbon emissions come from household cooking, heating, and lighting (Cordes 2011, 14). 

Gender-Related Questions:

5. What are the gender roles identified in this report?

In developing countries and their cultures, the burdens of domestic labor fall mainly on the shoulders of the women in the family. In addition to cooking meals for the family, this labor also entails gathering the resources and materials, i.e. fuel required to prepare the meal. The task of accumulating fuel-wood poses a great threat to women as they leave the comfort of their homes and travel to remote areas in search of fuel. Women and young girls spend an average of 20 or more hours per week on long walks (Cordes 2011, 12). They have to undertake physically arduous and challenging journeys, during which they are susceptible to gender-based acts of violence. Young girls are deprived of educational opportunities as they are expected to assist their mothers in cooking, gathering fuel for cooking and other forms of labour. The gender roles are rigid and deprive women and young girls of opportunities that could ensure some degree of economic independence (Boyden, Porter and Zharkevich 2020).

 

 

6. Why does gender equality matter in this case?

Gender equality and the attitudes towards gender roles are deeply significant in this case. The domestic division of labor points draws attention to gender inequality in these cultures. Women do three or four times as much housework as men. In developing countries, this culture of inequality means that unpaid domestic labor takes up so much time that very little time is left to invest in economically empowering ventures such as starting a business (Kumar and Mehta 2016). As a result, women are financially dependent on the men of the family. The education of young boys is prioritized over that of girls. Girls are pulled out of schools to help their families with household activities (fetching wood, cooking, etc.). According to one study, families from Kibaha District in Tanzania mentioned that their daughters were missing schools up to three days per month due to firewood collection (Bwenge 2011). The lack of income and educational opportunities for women means that women are trapped in a vicious cycle of dependence. Existing gender inequalities are amplified and exacerbated in war-torn or conflict-ridden areas such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia (Cordes 2011, 12). In these regions, armed conflicts make women more susceptible to sexual and physical assaults. As women have to travel long distances to remote or isolated areas to collect fuel-wood, they are susceptible to violent attacks. The rate of gender-based crimes is alarmingly high in these areas.

7. How did Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves bring about change in the lives of women?

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership that consists of nineteen founding partners. It aims to install safe and clean cookstoves and fuels in 100 million households by 2020. The Alliance attempts to address the obstacles in the way of production, deployment and use of clean cooking practices in developing countries. By doing so, the Alliance intends to combat climate change, improve livelihoods and empower women in developing countries (Cordes 2011, 24). The Alliance increased awareness about the harmful impacts of traditional cookstoves and the benefits of safe, clean cooking practices. Women were provided training on the correct use of modern, clean cookstoves (Steyn, Pakula and Stamminger 2012). Consumer-level awareness and training are both important because only a well-informed consumer will begin to consider clean cookstoves as a better alternative to primitive cookstoves.

Application of a Conceptual Framework:

8. In what ways does this clean cookstoves initiative respond to the concept of Planetary Boundaries?

The conceptual framework of Planetary Boundaries (PB) establishes safe operating grounds for human activities that influence the various biophysical processes responsible for sustaining the stability of our planet’s systems. The framework entails nine processes that are dictated by human actions and respond actively to the clean cookstoves initiative. The drive for scaling up the availability and installation of clean cookstove in global households primarily aims to mitigate the release of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs), toxic fumes and fine particulates that pose a significant threat to human lives (Cordes 2011, 4). The alleviation of such toxic emissions by incorporating cleaner cookstoves have enabled numerous countries around the world to limit these emissions within the safe zone limits of the PB. The lesser the use of conventional cooking fuels such as wood, the lesser the emissions of GHGs from unsafe cookstoves that would prove crucial in adhering to the safe levels of the nine PB processes, namely, climate change, ocean acidification, negative changes in biosphere integrity and land-systems, stratospheric ozone depletion, biogeochemical flows, phosphorus and nitrogen loading, withdrawal of freshwater, and chemical pollution (Steffen et al. 2015). The safe limits of these processes that encompass the CO₂ emission limits, genetic diversity and extinction rates, ozone concentration in the stratosphere, carbonate ion concentration in ocean surfaces, and deforested lands can be regulated by installing clean cookstoves in global urban and rural regions.