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Kampala, Uganda | Julius Businge | The Uganda National Alliance on clean cooking (UNACC) is calling on members of the public involved in the sector to use clean cooking methods so as to reduce emissions that are disastrous to the environment.
UNACC is an umbrella organisation involved in activities of clean fuels and biomass technology.
On June 14, around 60 of its members gathered at Kati Kati Restaurant in Kampala to discuss issues related to standards and new technologies in the clean cooking sector.
John Tumuhimbise, the chairperson board of directors for UNACC told journalists that the aim of the meeting was to partly urge members to be innovative and catch up with what is happening across the world of new technologies.
He urged members to work closely with Uganda National Bureau of Standards to understand the sector standards and implement them accordingly.
“We should use technologies that are less fuel consuming…clean cooking is the solution to environmental degradation,” Tumuhimbise said.
Alfred Kusiima, the UNACC national coordinator, said that the alliance is seeing a need to have all people engaged in the sector formalised and their technology tested.
He said that UNACC is engaging in different events with the aim of ensuring that, Uganda’s environment is not jeopardised by players in the sector.
They also aim to ensure that the health of Ugandans is improved by ensuring that less cases of indoor pollution are recorded.
Policy wise, Kusiima urged the government to speed up the review of The Renewable Energy Policy of 2007 as one way of guiding sector activities.
Meanwhile, the Alliance has signed a memorandum of understanding with CREEC (Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation) to among other things carryout joint resource mobilisation, awareness and sensitisation activities on clean energy use, joint research and project monitoring and evaluation and joint implementation of policy related activities.
CREEC Managing Director, Suzan Abbo Mary said, partnerships of this type are important for sharing knowledge, experiences to achieve specific objectives. She said CREEC will cooperate in the partnership.
Data on clean cooking sector from UNACC indicates that biomass is the major source of energy for 97% of the population in Uganda. About 96% of the total primary energy consumption is met through biomass in the form of firewood, charcoal or crop residues.
Over 90% of Uganda’s population do not have clean cooking solutions like cook stoves, biogas. Uganda loses 120, 000 hectares of forest cover annually to charcoal burning which translates to three million tons of carbon annually. The Alliance adds that household indoor air pollution causes 19, 700 deaths each year.
