Marks & Spencer has joined Unicef in a project that will help Bangladesh’s children breathe fresh air and cut carbon emission to lessen impact of climate change.
Unicef says under the new partnership beginning next February, Marks & Spencer will fund 40,000 “fuel efficient, low pollution” cooking stoves to be made and marketed by Bangladesh’s entrepreneurs.
Unicef in a statement on Tuesday said the initiative came in the wake of health hazards of household air pollution due to conventional stoves.
Citing World Health Organization, the statement said the traditional indoor stoves generated smoke and killed 49,000 people a year in Bangladesh.
Seventy percent of those killed are children under five.
Medical journal 'Lancet' says indoor air pollution from solid fuel poses “third biggest risk” for deaths in South Asia, killing more people than killed by malaria or tuberculosis.
Women and children, who mostly cook, are the most affected.
Unicef says the new stoves are 50 percent more fuel efficient than traditional stoves, producing one tonne less carbon emissions each year.
It says currently 90 percent of Bangladesh’s households depend on biomass such as wood, forest cuttings and cow dung for fuel, but less than two percent of those households use fuel efficient stoves.
The fuel efficient cook stoves help to reduce deforestation and limit local flooding, it says.
Bangladesh is one of the high risk countries impacted by climate change, particularly because of rising sea levels that could make millions of people homeless.
M&S and Unicef earlier this year announced an international partnership to raise £1.75 million over the next three years.
Employees across M&S’ 431 stores in over 50 countries have been raising money for Unicef's work providing life changing education for children, the UN agency says in a statement.
