Programs to provide rural Pakistani households with so-called improved cookstoves have had a muted response due to a lack of awareness among target communities — particularly among the women who do the cooking, a study has found.

Sustainable Brands Conference 2012

The finding comes as separate research suggests that some improved cookstove models actually cause more pollution than traditional mud stoves.

Nepal is looking to scale up its flagship household biogas programme, which has made forays into other developing countries in Asia and Africa.

Initiated in 1992 with support from the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), Nepal has installed over 240,000 household biogas plants with a thermal energy capacity of 444 megawatts and greenhouse gas savings of 367,409 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

Year after year, the world’s nations gather to find ways to reduce carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, with little meaningful progress. Frustrated by this slow pace, the United States and five other countries announced this week a modest but potentially game-changing initiative to cut three other pollutants that also contribute significantly to climate change.

Faulting the world for not doing enough to curb climate change, the United States on Thursday announced the formation of a six-nation coalition including Bangladesh to cut short-lived pollutants that speed up warming and harm health.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the coalition of the US, Bangladesh, Canada, Mexico, Sweden and Ghana will launch a global drive to curb black carbon (soot), methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).