Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Clean Cookstoves and Fuels Support Act. This bill addresses a serious global public health and environmental issue. I am very pleased to be joined in this effort by my friend and colleague Senator Durbin.

Nearly half of the world's people cook over open fires or inefficient, polluting, and unsafe cookstoves using agricultural waste, coal, dung, wood or other solid fuels. Smoke from these traditional cookstoves and open fires is associated with chronic and acute diseases that affect women and children disproportionately. The black carbon from these traditional cookstoves is also a significant driver of air pollution and climate change.

Alarmingly, the World Health Organization found that in 2012 this type of air pollution claimed 4.3 million lives. Millions more are sickened from the toxic fumes, and thousands suffer] burns annually from open fires or unsafe cookstoves. The Global Burden of Disease Study of 2010 doubled the mortality estimates for exposure to smoke from cookstoves, referred to as ``household air pollution,'' from 2 million to 4 million deaths annually. That is more than the deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS combined. This same study ranks household air pollution as the fourth worst overall health risk factor in the world and is the second worst health risk factor in the world for women and girls.

Traditional cookstoves also create serious environmental problems. Recent studies show that the emissions of black carbon or common soot from these cookstoves significantly contribute to regional air pollution and climate change. In fact, black carbon emissions from residential cookstoves in developing countries are responsible for as much as 25 percent of black carbon emissions. Moreover, each family can require up to two tons of cooking fuel, and where the demand for fuel outstrips the natural regrowth of resources, local environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity can result.

The collection of this fuel is also a burden that is shouldered disproportionately by women and children. In some areas, women and girls risk rape and other violence during the up to 20 hours per week they spend away from their families gathering fuel. This often means these women and girls have far less time to pursue an education, to generate income or to participate in other community activities, and this marginalizes their role in society. A new report by McKinsey Global Institute estimates that the world economy could increase by between $12 trillion and $28 trillion over 10 years if the participation of women was to equal that of men.

Replacing these cookstoves with modern alternatives would help reverse these alarming health, environmental, and economic trends, and it would be relatively inexpensive. In fact, there are stoves that are coming on the market that cost as little as $20 that are 50 percent more efficient than the traditional cooking methods. It could also be done quickly. It is what scientists call the low-hanging fruit of environmental and health fixes.

In 2010, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was formed to help support the adoption of clean cookstoves in 100 million households in the developing world by the year 2020. Recognizing the serious health and environmental issues posed by traditional cookstoves, the Alliance aims to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat pollution by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking stoves. Alliance partners are working together to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, development, and distribution of clean cookstoves in developing countries.

During the first 5 years of the Alliance, the U.S. Government played a key role in supporting this important endeavor, including through financial assistance that surpassed the original funding commitments. Led by the Department of State, 11 Federal agencies have invested more than $114 million in clean cookstoves and fuel initiatives to date. For the next 5 years of the Alliance, our government has announced anticipated commitments of another $175 million.

To date, our government has focused its efforts on applied research and development, diplomatic engagement to encourage a market for clean cookstoves and to improve access to them, international development projects to support clean cookstove businesses engaging women entrepreneurs, and supporting the adoption of clean and efficient cooking solutions by providing some financial assistance.

The legislation Senator Durbin and I are introducing today strengthens these important commitments by requiring the Secretary of State--in consultation with the relevant Federal agencies and in coordination with international NGOs and private and other government entities--to advance the goals and work of the Alliance. In addition, the bill would formally authorize the funding commitments already made by our government for the next 5 years, through the year 2020, to ensure that these important pledges toward preventing unnecessary illness and reducing pollution around the globe are met.

By supporting the work of the Alliance and the commitment of the U.S. Government to replace traditional cookstoves with modern versions that emit far less soot, this bill aims to benefit directly some of the world's poorest people and to reduce the harmful pollution that affects all of us. It offers a way for us to address the second largest contributor to climate change in a way that is inexpensive, not burdensome to the people of our country, and that will benefit poor people living in developing nations.

There is lots of disagreement on many proposals that have been advanced to address climate change, but this is one that should unite all of us. It will help to improve the health of women and children, in particular, who bear the burden of working over these dirty cookstoves in developing countries, and it will reduce carbon soot in our atmosphere--the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It will do so without requiring those of us in our country to change our ways.

I urge my colleagues to join Senator Durbin and me in supporting the Clean Cookstoves and Fuels Support Act.

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