Lima Consensus on Stove Performance Rating

At the 2011 PCIA Forum, many stakeholders participated in the development of, or signed on to, the Lima Consensus, an agreement to establish an interim rating system for the evaluation of cookstove models “that reflects the varying tiers of performance in the areas of fuel efficiency, indoor air quality, emissions of particulate matter and carbon monoxide, and safety.”

This agreement, an important step along the path toward developing voluntary global cookstove standards, was developed by members of the Global Alliance Standards and Technology Working Group, led by Tami Bond and Morgan DeFoort, and other stove testing leaders to recognize the areas of consensus among the standards and testing stakeholders gathered at the PCIA Forum. The group also recognized some of the challenges to address to make cookstove evaluation measures increasingly meaningful and useful and acknowledges that more work is required before a comprehensive, consensus and achievable global standard can be introduced.

In addition, a methodology was identified for rating of indoor air pollution. When finalized, the rating system will be fuel and stove neutral, simply rating stove/fuels by a number of criteria that will enable our community to have a better understanding of the performance of existing stove models and drive innovation to improve stove performance.

You can download the full signed consensus as well as the PCIA Forum Presentation below.