U.S. Government Awards Partnership for Clean Indoor Air Grants to Support Programs to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution in China

Posted on Sept 21, 2004

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded two $150,000 grants to implement innovative, community-based programs to reduce indoor air pollution from household energy use in China. The grants will support local projects that will demonstrate effective approaches to increase the use of clean, reliable, affordable, safe, and efficient home cooking and heating practices that reduce people’s exposure to indoor air pollution.

The grants are being made available as part of the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air which was launched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other partners at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002. In an effort to save lives and provide practical solutions, over 70 public and private organizations have joined the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. The Partnership’s mission is to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use for 5 million people by 2010 so they can live healthier, more productive, and better quality lives. This partnership is bringing together governments, industry, and non-governmental organizations to address the serious health effects associated with elevated indoor levels of smoke from cooking and heating practices.

According to the World Health Organization’s World Health Report (2002), indoor smoke from solid fuels is a major risk factor contributing to the global and regional burden of disease. More than two billion people, almost half of the world’s population, still burn traditional fuels like firewood, coal, crop residues, and dung indoors for home cooking and heating. This widespread use results in the premature deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people annually, with women and children being most significantly affected.

The USG is awarding $1.3 million in grants to implement Partnership for Clean Indoor Air pilot projects in Africa, Asia and Latin. The grants were reviewed by a six-member panel of international experts from the USEPA, World Health Organization, Shell Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Territory. The eleven projects with the strongest proposals to address social and cultural barriers to adopting improved technology, develop local markets for improved technology, meet design and performance guidance for improved technology, and demonstrate reduced exposure were selected.

The two Partnership grants in China are being awarded to the Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety (IEHS) of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and The Nature Conservancy.

The Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety will implement a household energy project in Guizhou and Gansu to test a sustainable comprehensive resolution to improve health through affordable, reliable, clean, safe and efficient household energy use. They will increase awareness and knowledge of indoor air pollution and health effects in 80% of households in target population, and up to 3,000 households (50%) will adopt new practices. They anticipate reducing indoor air pollution emissions by 80% for the new stove/heating device compared with traditional practice. They will initiate the chains of production of stove/parts, construction/maintenance, and distribution, and provide standardized blueprint, technical parameters and user manual of improved stove/heating sets. Finally, IEHS will determine the health benefits of using the improved technology.

The second grant will support The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) rural alternative energy program in northwest Yunnan, in the Yunnan Great Rivers Project Area, an important ecological area that includes the upper reaches of four great rivers: the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Salween, and the Irrawaddy – more than 500 million people live in the lower reaches of these rivers. TNC’s objective is to reduce fuel wood use by 75% in the next ten years, and use alternative energy to meet the rural communities’ energy needs to achieve dual biodiversity and health benefits. The project will develop and deliver alternative energy units to 5,000 households (representing 25,000 people), and raise the awareness of the increased environmental health risks from indoor air pollution resulting from burning biomass in 20,000 households (representing 100,000 people). Twenty schools will also use alternative energy for cooking and heating, reaching approximately 4,000 teachers, staff and students in the target area.

To learn more about the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air and how it is improving indoor air in homes in China and around the world, visit http://www.PCIAonline.org.