Survive Breathing: Reduce Household Air Pollution to Save Lives and Help the Climate

Part of Phase II of the GACC’s Strategic Roadmap includes working to better understand the cookstoves fuel needs of consumers, and to leverage this under- standing to launch targeted awareness-raising campaigns to drive demand for cleaner cooking solutions. 18 Establish and utilize testing methodologies to ensure alternative technologies and fuels meet the objectives of the programme. Technological alternatives to traditional methods of burning solid fuels for cooking and heating vary significantly in terms of their effectiveness at reducing health and/or climate damaging emissions. In addition to ensuring that the alternatives meet the needs of the users, as discussed above, HAP interventions must ensure that the technologies and fuels also produce the desired public health and climate benefits. Without being certified using a clear testing methodology, some interventions may produce results opposite to the goals of the HAP programme. For example, some clean cookstoves reduce overall PM 2.5 emissions, when compared to traditional cooking methods, while at the same time increasing total BC emissions, thus reducing the burden on health but increasing climate impacts. While there are currently no universally agreed standards for determining whether a cookstove produces the desired reductions inHAP, improvements in health outcomes, or reduced climate impacts, the GACC and WHO are leading an ISO process to promote consensus standards for cookstoves. The WHO has also recommended maximum emissions rates for PM and CO in its 2014 Indoor air quality guidelines: household fuel combustion.

HAP in Nepal. (For more information go to: www. nepalcookstoves.org.)

Recommendations from the 2014 WHO indoor air quality guidelines: household fuel combustion Recommendation 1 Emissions from household fuel combustion should not exceed WHO-recommended targets for PM 2.5 and Carbon Monoxide (CO). Recommendation 2 Governments and their implementing partners should develop strategies to accelerate efforts to meet the emission rate targets of these air quality guidelines. Recommendation 3 Unprocessed coal should not be used as a household fuel. Recommendation 4 The household use of kerosene is discouraged while further research into its health impacts is conducted. Good practice recommendation Governments and other agencies should de- velop and implement policy on climate change mitigation, which consider action on household energy and carry out relevant assessments to maximize health and climate gains.

Pay special consideration to user behaviour, needs, and preferences. In order for households to gain from the health benefits of reduced household air pollution, users must permanently adopt, and properly use and maintain new cookstoves and other devices. Even when new technologies are highly subsidized or given free of charge, experience has shown that this does not guarantee sustained adoption. Any intervention must be well researched, including not only the implications for health and climate, but also behavioral and cultural factors that influence choice and decision-making, as well as the economic situation of people and communities. An example of behaviour change includes drying fuel before use to improve combustion and decrease smoke production and keeping young children away from smoke to reduce exposure. (Such changes in user behaviour are unlikely to bring about reductions as large as those expected from a fuel switch or the installation of a hood or chimney. However, they should be seen as important supporting measures for other interventions). It is also important to consider how needs for heating and cooking will affect the use of clean fuel technologies. The same fuels and technologies are often used for cooking are used for space heating. In some cases households that have adopted cleaner cooking solutions still rely on open fires and other rudimentary technology for space heating. That is because the clean fuel alternatives and technologies typically do not provide the same warmth as more traditional fuels and technologies.

From Frequently Asked Questions WHO guidelines for indoor air quality: household fuel combustion November 2014 19

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SURVIVE BREATHING