OPIC & GE Finance Clean Cookstove Project in East Africa
January 31, 2013
(OPIC)
$4 million to establish manufacturing facility
in Kenya, satellite assembly plants in Rwanda,
Tanzania & Uganda
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S.
Government’s development finance institution,
is partnering with GE to finance a clean
cookstove manufacturing project that will have
a lasting developmental impact on both human
health and the environment in East Africa.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced
the project at a State Department ceremony
today.
Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves
and open fires is one of the World Health
Organization’s top five threats to public
health in developing countries, resulting in
approximately four million premature deaths
each year and causing a multitude of chronic
illnesses and acute health problems such as
pneumonia, emphysema, cataracts, lung cancer,
and cardiovascular disease. Women and young
children are most at risk. Replacing
traditional cookstoves and open fires with high
efficiency stoves improves health, reduces
carbon emissions, slows deforestation, and
lowers fuel costs.
BURN
Manufacturing Co. (BMC), the project’s U.S.
sponsor, will use a $3 million loan from OPIC
and $1 million in financing from GE to
establish a clean cookstove manufacturing
facility in Kenya with satellite assembly
plants in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The
stoves will be sold to a variety of entities,
including carbon asset developers and aid
organizations. BMC will create over 200
manufacturing jobs in East Africa and more than
20 design and manufacturing jobs in Washington
State. BMC’s goal is to manufacture and sell
3.6 million clean cookstoves in East Africa by
2020.
“Clean cookstoves are a relatively simple
technology capable of having a far-reaching,
positive impact on both human health and the
environment. Thousands of people in East
Africa will enjoy healthier lives thanks to
this innovative project, the result of an
outstanding partnership between BURN
Manufacturing, GE and OPIC,” said OPIC
President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield.
Deb Frodl, executive director of ecomagination,
GE said, “According to the Global Alliance for
Clean Cookstoves, nearly half the world’s
population – three billion people – burn wood,
dung and other biomass in open fires or
rudimentary stoves as a source of heat and to
prepare meals. We are proud to partner with
BURN Manufacturing and OPIC to increase access
to cleaner, more efficient cookstoves to help
reduce environmental impact and improve the
health of people around the world.”
“This project is the culmination of my
lifelong vision - a vision that I share with
Secretary Clinton and the UN Global Alliance
for Clean Cookstoves - to reduce deforestation
and indoor air pollution in the developing
world,” said CEO and Founder Peter Scott.
“Today, through this partnership, we have an
incredible opportunity to help realize this
vision by locally manufacturing millions of
high quality cookstoves in East Africa. Over
the next ten years alone, we will transform the
lives of more than 10 million people by
reducing annual household fuel costs by up to
$250, reducing indoor air pollution by up to 90
percent, and reducing deforestation by
preserving more than 100 million trees.”
In September 2010, Secretary Clinton announced
the launch of the Global
Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a
public-private partnership led by the United
Nations Foundation. OPIC has committed to
provide up to $50 million to the Alliance,
which seeks to enable 100 million households to
adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by
2020. OPIC’s commitment is nearly half of the
$114 million now pledged to the Alliance.
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