Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 18 January 2016 – On January 18th, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, with support from GIZ / Energising Development (EnDev) launched The Stove Auction, a new innovative approach to accelerate the market for advanced biomass stoves in Southeast Asia. The Stove Auction will operate in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam where over 65 million people still cook with traditional biomass stoves that contribute towards local natural resource degradation, and generate significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and smoke that pollutes kitchens and ambient air. According to the WHO’s Global Health Observatory Data Repository report, no less than 60,000 people die each year in these countries as a consequence of inhaling smoke from cooking, which is almost as much as diarrhea, malaria, HIV AIDS and tuberculosis combined. This health-hazard can drastically be reduced by advanced biomass stoves known as gasifiers.