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The Forum Daily

25
Oct
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Day 2 Recap

The Clean Cooking Forum 2017 just wrapped up a successful Day 2. India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan headlined the day’s activities, bolstered by a powerful address from Sustainable Energy for All CEO Rachel Kyte and a performance from longtime clean cooking champion Rocky Dawuni that had the crowd in the standing-room-only auditorium dancing in the aisles.

OPENING PLENARY

Honorable Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared the goals and successes of Prime Minister Modi’s PMUY program as he emphasized the importance of sharing best practices and putting women at the center of our work. His speech was followed by remarks from Rachel Kyte, who issued a global call to action to ensure energy access to the poorest of the poor, and a panel discussion on designing investments to drive market growth.

Quotes

Our primary aim is to address how to improve the health conditions of women, how to provide environmentally friendly fuel to the household, and how to add additional income.

– Honorable Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

Without the full dignity, empowerment, and economic opportunity for women, there is no way to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, nor will we achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goals if we balance emissions and air quality on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable.

– Rachel Kyte, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and SEforAll CEO

Within our partnership with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, we see ourselves as an ecosystem builder. We are building a Tata Trusts smart energy incubator center where innovators can come into a physical lab and experiment with their ideas.

– Manoj Kumar, Head of Innovation, Tata Trusts

SESSION HIGHLIGHTS

Scaling the Sector: How New Actors are Integrating Clean Cooking into Their Programming

Led by Bhushan Tuladhar from UN-Habitat in Nepal, this session featured actors who have not traditionally been involved in clean cooking but are now beginning to engage. Panelists included organizations focused on community building and aid in Nigeria (Africare), wildlife conservation in India (Wildlife Trust of India), environmental conservation (WWF Nepal), and technological innovations and developments (Intellectual Ventures laboratory). The discussion covered challenges faced by new actors in the sector, successes they have achieved, and opportunities moving forward.

Quotes

There is a need to expand our roles and collaborate across sectors. New actors provide fresh ideas. Convening is powerful.

– Bhushan Tuladhar, Regional Technical Advisor, UN Habitat in Nepal

The key to engaging stakeholders is understanding the depths of the issues. This integration is critical to convene stakeholders, identify problems, and empower communities to enact solutions.

– Orode Doherty, Country Director, AfricareHealth

Addressing the Affordability Gap: Innovations in Consumer Financing for Clean Cooking Solutions

This session discussed behavior change communications campaigns, the potential for market growth, challenges to driving demand, and what the sector needs to form a robust, sustainable market. The key takeaway:unlocking consumer financing is absolutely critical to address affordability in the se

Quotes

Consumers spend 20 billion dollars every year on cooking fuel in Sub-Saharan Africa, and only 5% use LPG as their primary fuel.

– Jessica Alderman, Director of Communications and Public Relations, Envirofit

Transition Scenarios: Moving Toward Clean Cookstoves and Fuels

Panelists from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the Global LPG partnership, EnDev, UC Berkeley, ESMAP/World Bank Group, and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves engaged in a discussion on how the sector can transition to cleaner cookstoves and fuels as well as the different roles that stakeholders must play to ensure that this transition takes place. A key point was that the sector must adopt a true market-based approach to enhance supply, drive demand, and ensure sustainability. However, panelists recognized existing challenges to achieving this goal, including the challenge of engaging the donor and investor community to take clean cooking enterprises to the point of invisibility, and the fact that biomass cannot be entirely left behind all at once.

Quotes

If we are going to take on this ambitious target, if we are serious, we should look beyond individuals and projects and look to move forward on a global scale.

– Frank van der Vleuten, Government of the Netherlands

We have to nurture the pipeline and take it to investment readiness. There is a lot of focus on feeding the pipeline, but not enough on nurturing to the point of investment readiness.

– Radha Muthiah, CEO, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Photos of the day

Long-time clean cooking ambassador Rocky Dawuni energizes the crowd.

Day 2 culminated with a dinner and dance performance by a local Indian dance troupe.

LOOKING AHEAD TO DAY 3

  • 07:30 – 09:00: Presentation and Discussion of Phase 3 of the Alliance’s Market-Enabling Strategy
  • 09:00 – 10:30: Plenary: Delivering Large Scale Impact through Policy – Lessons for Government
  • 11:30 – 13:00: Breakout Sessions
  • 13:00 – 14:30: Lunch and Poster Session
  • 14:30 – 16:00: Breakout Sessions
  • 16:00 – 17:45: Closing Plenary: Champions – New and Current Voices in Support of Clean Cooking
  • 17:45 – 18:00: Forum Closing Session

 

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SOCIAL MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

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