Clinton takes “clean cookstove” drive to India

CHENNAI, India, (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State  Hillary Clinton pushed one of her simplest but potentially most  transformative diplomatic priorities in India yesterday:  clean cooking stoves.

Clinton, who last year launched a $50 million U.S. drive to  bring clean cooking stoves to developing countries to cut deaths  from smoke inhalation and fight climate change, visited an  Indian demonstration site to watch some of the stoves in action.      Clinton watched several Indian women working different  models of cookstoves, ranging from a traditional fire to the new  model stoves which burn both hotter and more efficiently,  reducing the need for fuel and cutting emissions.

“The women here today represent women all over the world who  are by and large the biggest users and victims of cookstoves,”  Clinton said after smiling and greeting each of the women  crouched by their different stoves.

“We will work with people around the world to help develop  clean cookstoves, help to manufacture them so they are  affordable for you to buy them.”

A U.S. official travelling with Clinton said improving  cooking stoves in India alone could have a major impact.       Cooking fires are blamed for some 400,000 deaths in the  country each year, mostly of women and children, and for as much  as a quarter of India’s emissions of soot or “black carbon”,  which along with ozone air pollution is seen as a major driver  of global warming.