The Charcoal Project is thrilled to join the global Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA)!

The  organization’s 330 partners contribute their resources and expertise to reduce smoke exposure from cooking and heating practices in households around the world. The partnership works on four priority areas:

• Meeting the needs of local communities for clean, efficient, affordable and safe cooking and heating options;
• Improving cooking technologies, fuels and practices for reducing indoor air pollution;
• Developing commercial markets for clean and efficient technologies and fuels; and
• Monitoring and evaluating the health, social, economic and environmental impact of household energy interventions

More from the PCIA website:

About PCIA

More than half of the world’s population—three billion people—cook their food and heat their homes by burning coal and biomass, including wood, dung, and crop residues, in open fires or rudimentary stoves. Indoor burning of solid fuels releases dangerous particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants, and releases greenhouse gases into the air. The resulting indoor air pollution levels are 20 to 100 times greater than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality guidelines allow. Unfortunately, the health risks and threats to the environment are on the rise: the International Energy Agency estimates that 200 million more people will use these fuels by 2030.

WHO estimates that 1.5 million people die prematurely each year from exposure to indoor smoke from burning solid fuels. In fact, indoor air pollution from household energy is ranked fourth in the list of serious threats to health in less developing countries, after malnutrition, unsafe sex, and unsafe water. Women and children face the greatest risks. Breathing unsafe levels of smoke indoors more than doubles a child’s risk of serious respiratory infection and is associated with pregnancy problems, such as stillbirth and low-weight babies.

To address this challenge, a group of committed organizations joined forces in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to launch the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA). Already, key PCIA Partners have reported helping 1.4 million households to adopt clean cooking and heating practices, reducing harmful exposures for more than 7.6 million people. These Partners plan to reach another 6 million households by 2010.

View a list of partners.

PCIA Statistics

Total Partners: 330 NGOs: 50% Academics: 12% Governments: 10% Independent Consultants: 9% Multilateral Institutions: 2% Private Industry: 14% Other: 4%
North America: 70 (21%) Africa: 94 (28%) Latin America & Caribbean: 22 (7%) Europe: 43 (13%) Asia: 100 (30%) Other: 1 (0%)