X PRIZE, Govt. of India, and the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) Announce Partnership to Create Global Competition to Develop Clean-Burning Cookstove.
Initiative would combat the serious problem of indoor air pollution, which kills more than one million people each year
First the good news: Jeffrey Sachs Charts the Way Forward for MDGs Ahead of UN Summit World-renowned economist calls on leaders to arrive at the New York meeting next month “with the agreed plans, partnerships, and financing to accelerate our progress.” Professor Jeffrey Sachs has outlined eight “major gaps” which need to be overcome if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be achieved. These unmet objectives are in smallholder agriculture, education, water and sanitation, health, climate financing, empowering girls and women, infrastructure, and strategies and goals at the local level. His comments come ahead of the MDG summit, taking Continue reading
It occurs to us that Mr. Bill Gates’ description above of how the market treats (or not) infectious diseases could easily apply to energy poverty and the 3 billion people who depend on biomass as their primary fuel. For one, the socio-economics of the victims are similar. Second, there is no natural market for clean cookstoves.
So, could a Gates-ian approach to combating infectious disease work for poverty alleviation? Maybe, but there are major, maybe irreconcilable differences, between the two.
Charcoal producers in Kisarawe and Rufiji districts, (Coast Region of Tanzania) have a reason to smile after Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited earmarked more than 1.5bn Tanzanian Shillings (USD 1,002,875 / €768,746) to Dar es Salaam Charcoal Project (DCP) to train charcoal producers on how to cut down deforestation.
Tropical forest degradation progresses in a series of “waves”, with forests initially exploited for high value products like hardwoods and then eventually used for successively lower value goods like firewood and fodder, reports new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.