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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