Abdullah announces New Initiatives to bring Clean Cooking Technologies to Rural India during the India Clean Cookstove Forum 2013

With the vision of enhancing the use of improved cookstove technologies, envisaged under the National Biomass Cookstove Programme (NBCP), Dr Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy inaugurated the India Clean Cookstove Forum 2013 organised jointly by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH operating on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Speaking on the occasion, Dr Farooq Abdullah said “increased use of clean and efficient cookstoves is crucial to reduce the burden of disease from indoor air pollution as well to avoid the overuse of biomass resources. Efficient cooking technologies have a direct tangible impact on the livelihoods of the poor, as they save time and money that previously had to be spent on procuring cooking fuels.” During the Forum, the Minister launched a new initiative on biomass cookstoves developed under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Frameworks Convention on Climate Change to reduce the cost of improved stove technologies to rural customers through the sale of carbon credits. He added that this is just one of several joint efforts to provide clean and reliable energy to rural areas and these initiatives have further endorsed the close relations and cooperation between India and Germany. Mr. Heiko Warnken, Head of the Development Cooperation, German Embassy highlighted the importance of cooperation between India and Germany on renewable energy attributing it to the relevance for both poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability, as well as the energy needs of the vast rural population for cooking and income-generating activities. He added that this is just one of several joint efforts to provide clean and reliable energy to rural areas and these initiatives have further endorsed the close relations and cooperation between India and Germany.