Ghana likely to be priority country for UN-led Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Ghana is likely to be listed as a priority country for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) after it officially joined the initiative early this year.
With the US being a key partner, the Alliance, which is 18-months old, is a United Nations Foundation led public-private partnership to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.
Speaking to journalists across Africa via a teleconference meeting May 4, 2012, Jacob E. Moss, Director of U.S. Cookstoves Initiatives at the Office of the Secretary of State, said “Ghana is likely to be one of the priority countries of the Alliance.”
According to Mr Moss, the Executive Director of the Alliance, Ms. Radha Muthiah, was in Ghana recently and met with the government and “got a very strong positive feedback from them regarding participation from them in the Alliance”.
“So, they formally joined now and they will be working very closely with the Alliance in the coming years,” he added.
The Alliance will soon start a market analysis in Ghana which will look at the consumer side of what the needs are in the country, what foods are cooked, what fuels are available, among others.
They will also be looking at the supply side of “who is manufacturing either clean stoves or clean fuels, or who is interested in the distribution of clean stoves or fuels,” Mr Moss said.
Mr Moss indicated they will be working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to enhance the smoothness of the initiative.
The Alliance seeks to promote the use of clean energy such as gas for cooking.
According to Kris M. Balderston, Special Representative for Global Partnerships at Office of the US Secretary of State, unclean air from cookstoves, from cooking, kills two million women and children a year and accounts for 20% of the world’s black carbon.
“Every year two million women and children die. This is twice as much as malaria as and considerably more than tuberculosis,” Mr Balderston said.
By Ekow Quandzie