new fund aims to fuel growth in market for clean cookstoves - household air cleaner

BARCELONA (
Thomson Reuters Foundation-
New $4 million (£3 million)
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves said the fund aims to accelerate the development of the supply chain of stoves with lower pollution in poor communities and provide loans to businesses that are struggling to finance their growth.
The clean cooking Liquidity Fund, the first debt fund to focus on green stoves, issued its first loan to two U. S. businesses this weekS. -
Envirofit International and BioLite are social-based companies.
They will use the money to expand the production and distribution of smart stoves that can cook faster and reduce fuel use, smoke and climate --
Changes in emissions in sub-markets
Sub-Saharan Africa, India and Latin America, the alliance said. BioLite’s high-
Technical stoves can also generate electricity. Peter J.
George, director of impact investment at the Alliance, said the fund would provide debt financing for "many other commercial banks and companies that traditional lenders may not lend at this stage, because they are still perfecting the technology and business model.
"The fund will play a catalytic role in raising future debt capital for companies in the industry.
"This is really a demonstration," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation . "
The alliance says a global market for clean cooking solutions is needed to reach 3 billion people who are still cooking a lot of food
Polluting solid fuel
When burning in open fire and traditional stoves, harmful smoke is emitted from wood, coal, charcoal and other solid fuels, killing 4 million people a year, making domestic air pollution the fourth largest health risk in the world, it said.
George said the new fund, set up by Deutsche Bank and the alliance, plans to provide $250,000 to $500,000 in loans to 12 to 15 companies by the end of 2017.
These include businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Radha Muthiah, CEO of the Global Alliance for Clean stoves, said in a statement that the funding will help these companies "grow their business, create jobs and boost local economic development, ultimately, we will promote cleaner and more efficient stoves and fuels ".
A public Alliance.
The private partnership, hosted by the United Nations Foundation, aims to promote access to clean and efficient stoves and fuels in 100 million households by 2020.
In its latest annual report, the company said it had reached its target of 50 million housing units and possibly more than 2014 housing units during the period 2010 to 100 million.
The report said that the private sector was increasingly involved in the work, distributing more than half of the clean stoves and fuels reported in 2014.
George said that the development of innovative financing models to expand the use of clean stoves lags behind the solar sector in developing countries, where hiring-
Purchase and pay for equipmentas-you-
Solar energy has gained a foothold.
To help change the situation, the alliance has also run a fund to provide grants and equity financing to emerging companies to build their operations, which it hopes to increase to $4 million to $5 million a year, said George.
He added that so far, the new liquidity fund has raised half of the target of more than $4 million from the original funder, including Deutsche Bank, Dutch enterprise agency, Royal Dutch
In the early days, some clean stoves were criticized for not being suitable for local culture and traditions, thus limiting the absorption of people.
Another challenge is "stove build-up," where households use cleaner models, but at the same time continue to cook with old smoked stoves, reducing potential health benefits.
But George says methods are evolving.
For example, it is now difficult to fund stoves projects by selling carbon credits based on estimated emission reductions, as stoves are less important to users' appeal.
"With the carbon market downturn, companies have realized that their business model needs to rely on the revenue of customers who want to buy products," he said . ".