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TS/P 238

TO THE ISO MEMBER BODIES

2013-03-04

ISO/TS/P 238 – Cookstoves and clean cooking solutions
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please find attached a proposal for a new field of technical activity on Cookstoves andclean cooking solutions submitted by ANSI (USA).
According to subclause 1.5.6 of Part 1 of the ISO/IEC Directives, you are kindly invited tocomplete the ballot form (Form 02) which can be downloaded at www.iso.org/forms please note that votes must include a justifying statement in Form 02. Forms should be sent
(preferably in Word format) to the Secretariat of the ISO Technical Management Board at
tmb@iso.org before 4 June 2013.

Yours faithfully,

Sophie Clivio,
Secretary of the Technical Management Board

Encl.: TS/P 238
Form 1
Attachment 1
Attachment 2

TMB_CL/TS/P_238

PROPOSAL FOR A NEW FIELD OF TECHNICAL ACTIVITY
Closing date for voting:

Reference number(to be given by Central Secretariat)

Proposer

ISO/TS/P

Circulation date:

ANSI
A proposal for a new field of technical activity shall be submitted to the Central Secretariat, which will assign it a reference
number and process the proposal in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives (part 1, subclause 1.5). The proposer may be amember body of ISO, a technical committee or subcommittee, the Technical Management Board or a General Assemblycommittee, the Secretary-General, a body responsible for managing a certification system operating under the auspices of ISO,or another international organization with national body membership. Guidelines for proposing and justifying a new field oftechnical activity are given in the ISO/IEC Directives (part 1, Annex C).
The proposal (to be completed by the proposer)
Title of the proposed new committee (The title shall indicate clearly yet concisely the new field of technicalactivity which the proposal is intended to cover.)Cookstoves and clean cooking solutions
Scope statement of the proposed new committee (The scope shall precisely define the limits of the field ofactivity. Scopes shall not repeat general aims and principles governing the work of the organization but shallindicate the specific area concerned.)Standardization in the field of cookstoves and clean cooking solutions.

Proposed initial programme of work (The proposed programme of work shall correspond to and clearly reflect
the aims of the standardization activities and shall, therefore, show the relationship between the subject
proposed. Each item on the programme of work shall be defined by both the subject aspect(s) to be standardized(for products, for example, the items would be the types of products, characteristics, other requirements, data to
be supplied, test methods, etc.). Supplementary justification may be combined with particular items in the
programme of work. The proposed programme of work shall also suggest priorities and target dates.

The first item for standardization will be to develop an International Standard based on ISO IWA 11:2012, which provides aframework for rating cookstoves against tiers of performance for a series of performance indicators, including fuel use(efficiency), emissions (carbon monoxide and particulate matter, indoor emissions (carbon monoxide and particulate matter),and safety.
In addition to the IWA performance indicators (efficiency, emissions (total and indoor), (safety), other indicators for stoves forconsideration in the programme of work include:•
Black carbon or other emissions•
Durability•
Field-based indicators•
Factors that will affect usability
Future standards development may address:•
Fuels
o Environmental impacts (for example lifecycle GHG emissions, soil quality, water consumption)o Energy content, calorific value•
Heat-retention devices
o Maintaining temperature for a minimum period of time
Indication(s) of the preferred type or types of deliverable(s) to be produced under the proposal (This may be
combined with the "Proposed initial programme of work" if more convenient.)

International Standards

FORM 1 (ISO)Version/V2012

See overleaf

A listing of relevant existing documents at the international, regional and national levels. (Any known relevant
document (such as standards and regulations) shall be listed, regardless of their source and should beaccompanied by an indication of their significance.)

Standards:
Zimbabwe, Ref. 05/03/2012 S. Control No. 354594 – Method of Tests and Compliance with SANS 1906-2006.
Kenya, Standards for Durability
Bolivia, NB 83001
South Africa, Safety for non-pressurized kerosene stoves
South Africa, Developing safety for pressurized kerosene stoves
China, Beijing City Local Standard DB11/T 540-2008 – General technical specification of domestic biomass stove/boiler
India, Indian Standard 13152 – Solid Bio-mass Chula Specification, Bureau of Indian Standards
Uganda Standards ( US 761:2007 Energy efficiency stoves — Household biomass stoves — Performance requirements and test
methods)
Uganda Standard 765 Wood charcoal
Related Alliance/PCIA Test Protocols:
The Water Boiling Test
The Controlled Cooking Test
The Kitchen Performance Test
Iowa State Safety Rating Protocol
A statement from the proposer as to how the proposed work may relate to or impact on existing work, especiallyexisting ISO and IEC deliverables. (The proposer should explain how the work differs from apparently similar work,
or explain how duplication and conflict will be minimized. If seemingly similar or related work is already in thescope of other committees of the organization or in other organizations, the proposed scope shall distinguishbetween the proposed work and the other work. The proposer shall indicate whether his or her proposal could be
dealt with by widening the scope of an existing committee or by establishing a new committee.)This proposal is intended to expand on the dialogue begun during the ISO workshop held in Feb 2011 which resulted inpublication of the IWA 11:2012 Guidelines for evaluating cookstove performance.
The solid biofuels standards (TC 238 Solid biofuels) are going to be quite relevant for clean fuels for cooking. There are also
liquid biofuel standards (TC 28/SC 7 Liquid Biofuels) may be relevant for cooking (ethanol, possibly palm oil).
A listing of relevant countries where the subject of the proposal is important to their national commercial
interests.

See Attachment 1, Relevant ISO member countries where cookstoves and clean cooking solutions is important to national
interests.

A listing of relevant external international organizations or internal parties (other ISO and/or IEC committees) to
be engaged as liaisons in the development of the deliverable(s). (In order to avoid conflict with, or duplication ofefforts of, other bodies, it is important to indicate all points of possible conflict or overlap. The result of any
communication with other interested bodies shall also be included.)

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
United Nations Foundation
Shell Foundation
World BankWorld Health Organization
Groupe Energies Renouvelables, Environnement et Solidarites (GERES)SNV Netherlands Development Organisation
World Food Programme
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Global LPG Partnership
World LPG Association
Global Bioenergy Partnership
Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels
Asian Development BankInter-american Development BankFORM 1 (ISO) page 2
Version/2012

A simple and concise statement identifying and describing relevant affected stakeholder categories (including
small and medium sized enterprises) and how they will each benefit from or be impacted by the proposeddeliverable(s).

The cookstoves design and manufacturing community is continually improving the performance of their technologies. Thus,
different cookstove technologies can vary in their performance and all are constantly improving. The lack of an international
agreement on standards has made it challenging for stove manufacturers, distributors, investors as well as users to rate thequality of cook stoves. Having a set of standards that clearly defines how technology impacts fuel use, emissions, durability andsafety can benefit:•
Consumers and users by providing information to make informed choices and purchases•
Designers and manufacturers by affirming their product quality and driving innovation•
Policy makers, donors, programs, investors by establishing a credible basis for comparing stove performance and safety•
All stakeholders by providing common terminology for communicating, understanding, and improving stove performanceand adoption
An expression of commitment from the proposer to provide the committee secretariat if the proposal succeeds.

ANSI (US) is prepared to provide resources to support the technical committee secretariat. ANSI and KEBS (Kenya) haveagreed to enter into a twinning arrangement on the secretarait.

Purpose and justification for the proposal. (The purpose and justification of the standard to be prepared shall bemade clear and the need for standardization of each aspect (such as characteristics) to be included in the standard
shall be justified. Clause C.4.12.1 through C.4.12.10 of Annex C of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 contain a menu ofsuggestions or ideas for possible documentation to support and purpose and justification of proposals. Proposers
should consider these suggestions, but they are not limited to them, nor are they required to comply strictly withthem. What is most important is that proposers develop and provide purpose and justification information that ismost relevant to their proposals and that makes a substantial business case for the market relevance and the needfor their proposals. Thorough, well-developed and robust purpose and justification documentation will lead tomore informed consideration of proposals and ultimately their possible success in the ISO IEC system.)

See Attachment 2, Purpose and Justification Statement for TSP on Cookstoves and clean cooking solutions.
Signature of the proposer

Steven P. Cornish
Senior Director - International Policy
American National Standards InstituteFurther information to assist with understanding the requirements for the items above can be found in the Directives, Part 1,
Annex C.
Comments of the Secretary-General (to be completed by the Central Secretariat)

Signature

FORM 1 (ISO) page 2
Version/2012

Attachment 1
ISO member countries where cookstoves and clean cooking solutions is important to national interests

Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
BelarusBotswana
Bosnia-Herzegovina
BrazilCameroon
China
Congo, Democratic
Republic
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Croatia
Côte d'Ivoire
Ethiopia
Estonia
Fiji
Gabon
Ghana
India
Jamaica
Kenya
Mali
MexicoMongolia
Namibia
Pakistan
Nigeria
PanamaPhilippines
Peru
Saint Lucia
SenegalSlovenia
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Syria
Thailand
Tanzania
Macedonia
Trinidad andTobagoTurkey% of Population
Cookstoves
Using Solid Fuels Implementation
for Cooking
Projects
ISO Member Bodies
49%

89%
19%
65%
50%

13%

83%

80%
85%
20%
23%
21%
12%
74%
95%
16%
40%
28%
87%
82%
45%
63%
95%
14%
51%
65%
81%
67%
33%
45%
33%
63%
53%
8%
18%
67%
95%
32%
72%
95%
30%
8%
11%

Location ofMajor Testing
CenterParticipationin ISO IWA































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











Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Yemen
Zimbabwe
Afghanistan
Albania
AngolaBenin
BhutanBolivia
Burkina Faso
BurundiCambodiaCongo
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
EritreaGambiaGeorgia
GuatemalaGuineaGuyanaKyrgyzstan
LesothoLiberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritania
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
RwandaSierra Leone
Swaziland
Tajikistan
Togo
UgandaZambiaDominica
Honduras
LaosSaint Vincent and
the Grenadines

6%
72%

70%
42%

72%
ISO Correspondent Members

95%
50%
95%

95%
67%

34%

95%
95%

95%
85%

15%

33%
80%

95%
43%

62%
95%
59%
76%

83%

95%
95%

95%

56%

80%
95%

81%

64%

95%
90%
53%

95%

92%

64%
75%

87%

95%

72%
ISO Subscriber Members
21%

57%

95%
31%

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
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Attachment 2
Purpose and justification statement for TSP on Cookstoves and clean cooking solutions

Nearly half of the world’s population – three billion people in the developing world – cook
their food by burning coal and biomass, including wood, dung and crop residues over open
fires or on rudimentary, often unvented stoves. Indoor burning of these solid fuels releases
dangerous particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other toxic pollutants. This practice canlead to indoor air pollution levels that are 20 to 100 times greater than the World HealthOrganization’s (WHO) air quality guidelines and release greenhouse gases and black carbon
into the air. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (Lancet 2012) estimates that 4 million
premature deaths each year are due to exposure to indoor smoke from these cooking
practices. Open fires and rudimentary cookstoves also increase pressures on local
environmental resources (e.g., forests, habitat) and fuel use and emissions contribute toclimate change at the regional and global levels.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is working with more than 600 Partners in 117
countries to achieve the adoption of 100 million clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.
Developing globally recognized standards that are widely accepted by the stove community
and adopted by country governments could spur wider deployment of clean cookstoves in a
number of ways, including: defining what is an “clean” or “efficient” for users, stove makers,
and policy makers; and enabling the rating of stoves by efficiency, safety, durability,
affordability and cleanliness, while allowing for differences in local conditions and user
behavior. National standards have been developed and implemented in a few countries, but
no international standard has been found to contain commonly agreed upon and accepted
criteria by which to define performance levels for cookstoves and fuels. Such international
standards would significantly enhance efforts to see clean cookstoves adopted at scale.
Based on these considerations, and the fact that no ISO Technical Committee currently exists
to address clean cookstoves, ISO took the first step toward creating a global reference
document addressing clean cookstoves by developing an IWA in 2012. It is time to take thenext step and form a Technical Committee to build on the success of the IWA 11:2012 andturn it into an International Standard and develop a family of standards supporting clean
cooking solutions. Participation is encouraged from all stakeholder categories, including
stove manufacturers, implementers, researchers, academics, stove testers and other cookstove
community members. A special effort will be made to encourage participation fromdeveloping countries in the ISO activity.

·
What are the business, technological, societal or environmental issues that the proposal
seeks to address?
Business - Standards for cookstoves can enable the development of thriving markets andbusiness opportunities and drive investment to improve quality and performance and scale up
production for widespread sale and adoption of clean cooking technologies.
Technological - Clean, efficient, durable, safe, and affordable stoves are – along with clean
fuels and other products like chimneys and heat retention cookers –central to most solutions
to the health, environmental, and other risks inherent in cooking with fire. Where solid
1biomass must be used, advanced clean cookstoves are most likely to achieve significant
health and climate benefits. Other technologies achieve important, but more modest progress
and therefore may best thought of as intermediate or transitional solutions as the market for
more advanced solutions is developed. The type of fuel or level or processing can also impact
stove performance. Thus, there can be trade-offs with performance, durability, usability, andaffordability, and international standards can help consumers, investors, and donors evaluate
these trade-offs based on their priorities.
Environment - Nearly 3 billion people each day cook on open fires or rudimentary
cookstoves that are fueled by coal or solid biomass such as wood. Reliance on polluting
cookstoves and fuels leads to a wide variety of environmental problems. Using solid biomass
as fuels depletes forests, a condition that weakens the soil causing mudslides and destroying
agricultural land; and jeopardizes human health and household and community air quality andthe global climate through smoke emissions.
Health - Chronic exposure to smoke from traditional cooking practices is one of the world’s
biggest – but least well-known – killers. Penetrating deep into the lungs of its victims, thesmoke causes a range of deadly chronic and acute health effects such as child pneumonia,
lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart disease, as well as low birthweight in children born to mothers whose pregnancies are spent breathing smoke from open
fires and traditional cookstoves.
Social and Gender - Reliance on inefficient cookstoves and fuels leads to health (emphysema,cataracts, cancer, heart disease, etc.) and economic burdens that impact women and girls,
particularly because cooking and fuel collection largely remain a woman’s responsibility. As
noted in the recent Global Burden of Disease study, men also have significant health impacts
from household air pollution.

· Are there relevant global metrics that demonstrate the extent or magnitude of theeconomic, technological, societal or environmental issue, or the new market? Is there
documentation that supports the metric? This may include an estimate of the usage of the
IWA as an indicator of potential usage and global relevance of International Standards.
Number of people dependent on traditional stoves and Global Burden of Disease is alreadylisted in current purpose/justification. Additionally, 2 billion tons of biomass are burned eachyear, up to 40% of household income is spent on fuel for those at the base of the pyramid,
one quarter of global black carbon emissions are from cookstoves, and women and children
can spend up to 8 hours a day on chores related to cooking (collecting firewood and facing
risk of attack particularly in conflict areas and exposure to smoke during cooking).

·

What are the benefits?

o Economic
Clean cookstoves and fuels provide livelihood and income opportunities for those involved indesign, testing, manufacturing, and distribution. Especially in developing countries, local
2

production or assembly of stoves, or production or processing of fuels, and lead to economic
development.
Women can play a unique role within the cookstove and fuel value chains, as they often excel
in entrepreneurial activities and can leverage their existing networks for distribution,marketing, and sales, and the Alliance has included the empowerment of women as an
explicit goal in its mission statement. Further, the Alliance’s partners recognize that theycannot design clean cookstove and fuels solutions without the full participation and input of
women.
o Societal benefit(s)Clean cooking solutions are those clean cookstove technologies, fuels, equipment, andpractices that address the health and environmental impacts associated with traditional
cookstoves. In addition to reducing emissions and fuel use to benefit health and theenvironment, a clean cooking solution or a new technology that meets the needs of the users
and is culturally appropriate can reduce income and time spent on collecting fuel, andincreasing time for education and income-generating activities.
o Environmental benefit(s)Reducing fuel use and emissions from cooking can reduce greenhouse gas emissions andreduce deforestation. In cases where agricultural residue or dung is used for cooking,reducing fuel use can also lead to improved soil quality and agricultural productivity.

·
What is the intended use of the proposed standard? For example, whether thedeliverable is intended as requirements to support conformity assessment or only as guidanceor recommended best practices; whether the deliverable is intended for use or reference intechnical regulation; whether the deliverable is intended to be used to support legal cases inrelation to international treaties and agreements.
The ISO standards will be used to communicate performance and quality to users andinvestors. The ISO standards may also include minimum and best practices to ensure thattechnologies are high performing and address user needs. The ISO standards, or their national
adoptions, and related certification activities, may be used for regulatory purposes.
· Are there metrics that the committee can use to assess the impact of the publishedstandard over time to achieve the benefits to stakeholders?
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will have a monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
framework to track the number of clean and efficient cookstoves that are sold and adopted. A
variety of other indicators relating to environment, health and market development will also
be included. This M&E framework can also be used to assess the impact of the publishedstandard.
· Statement assessing the prospect of the resulting deliverable(s) being compliant with
ISO's Global Relevance Policy

3This work will consider how it addresses essential differences in markets around the world,that is, factors that are not expected to change over time, such as imbedded technologicalinfrastructures, climatic, geographical or anthropological differences.
Any International Standard shall to the extent possible represent a unique international
solution. In cases where unique international solutions are not possible for specificprovisions of an International Standard at the current time due to legitimate market andessential differences, International Standards may present options to accommodate thesedifferences, where justified.
This ISO committee will ascertain at the outset of each project whether:•a globally relevant International Standard presenting one unique international solution
in all of its provisions is feasible;•
an International Standard is feasible that presents options in specific provisions toaccommodate existing and legitimate market differences, where justified; or•the preparation of a globally relevant International Standard is not feasible and work
should not be undertaken in such circumstances.

4