[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 109 (Thursday, June 22, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2232-S2233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. Durbin):
  S. 2179. A bill to help increase the development, distribution, and 
use of clean cookstoves and fuels to improve health, protect the 
climate and environment, empower women, create jobs, and help consumers 
save time and money; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise today to introduce the Clean 
Cooking Support Act. I am pleased to be joined in this effort by my 
friend and colleague Senator Durbin. Our bill aims to address a serious 
global public health and environmental issue where leadership by the 
United States can make a real difference.
  Today, more than 2 billion people, or 30 percent of the global 
population, rely on ``dirty cooking,'' such as open fires or 
inefficient, polluting, and unsafe cookstoves that use agricultural 
waste, coal, dung, or other solid fuels, to cook their meals. The 
majority of people using these types of cookstoves and fuels are in 
developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
  Exposure to smoke from these traditional cooking methods and open 
fires, referred to as household air pollution, can cause chronic and 
acute diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. 
Alarmingly, the household air pollution caused by traditional 
cookstoves and open fires leads to 3.2 million premature deaths 
annually, including 450,000 children younger than 5

[[Page S2233]]

years of age, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Women 
and girls are disproportionately affected, as they spend hours cooking, 
inhaling toxic smoke, and collecting fuels.
  These cookstoves also create serious environmental problems. 
Household air pollution does not remain in the home; it contributes to 
global ambient air pollution. Specifically, more than half of manmade 
black carbon emissions come from household fuel combustion. Black 
carbon is a powerful short-lived climate pollutant with warming impact 
on the climate that is 460 to 1,500 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
  These cookstoves should be replaced with modern alternatives to 
reverse these alarming health and environmental trends. Since 2010, the 
Clean Cooking Alliance, an innovative public-private partnership hosted 
by the United Nations Foundation, has supported the adoption of clean 
cooking worldwide. Recognizing the serious health and environmental 
issues posed by traditional cookstoves, the alliance aims to save 
lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat pollution by 
creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household 
cooking solutions.
  Our legislation reinforces our country's policy on promoting clean 
cookstoves and seeks to take a whole-of-government approach to address 
household air pollution. Specifically, the Clean Cooking Support Act 
would create an interagency working group, with representatives from at 
least six different Federal Agencies, committed to increasing access to 
clean cooking fuels and technologies worldwide. Our legislation 
explicitly spells out the role of each Federal Agency in the 
advancement of clean cooking as well. The Department of Energy, for 
instance, is tasked with research and development to spur the 
production of low-cost, low-emission, and high-efficiency cookstoves, 
while the Department of State is directed to engage in diplomatic 
activities across the globe to support the clean cooking and fuels 
sector. Finally, our would authorize funding for the U.S. Government to 
continue such activities through 2028 to ensure that these important 
efforts to prevent unnecessary illness and reduce pollution around the 
globe continue.
  Our legislation would directly benefit some of the world's poorest 
people, including the women and girls who are disproportionately 
affected, and reduce harmful pollution that affects us all. I urge my 
colleagues to join me and Senator Durbin in supporting the Clean 
Cooking Support Act.
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