Flying To Support Clean Cookstoves

Brussels Airlines has started an initiative called as “Carbon Offset Programme” in association with CO2Logic, which provides its travelers the prospect to compensate for the CO2 emissions of their flight by making a small financial contribution which will be used to support the woodstove project in Uganda, as per a report on Brussels Airlines. The Project aspires to guard the trees, reduce deforestation and ensure better living conditions for the inhabitants by plummeting their exposure to toxics emitted from traditional stoves.

The passengers can calculate their CO2 footprint based on international norms and offset the emissions by paying money. The contributions will go exclusively towards supporting an internationally recognised clean cookstoves project in Africa that helps to reduce CO2 as per Gold Standard which guarantees carbon offset of a high quality. The contributors will be certified with a digital certificate as a proof of their effort.

CO2 compensations are entirely voluntary in nature and do not impact the ticket rates as it is the choice of the traveler to offset his flight. Also, the prices of the offset programme are nominal at around €22 exclusive of VAT per tonne of CO2.

For example, one of the projects that the contributions will go towards is the purchase of ecologically-friendly wood stoves in Uganda for the local population who continue to use wood and charcoal as fuel – a situation which has led to deforestation in the country. With these new efficient stoves, the amount of wood consumed per family can be reduced by nearly 40% and CO2 emissions reduced by 1.4 tonnes per family per year.

The stoves will reduce the impact of toxic smoke fumes which affect the health of women and children in Africa and cause diseases like pneumonia, which accounts for 20 per cent of all child deaths globally, as per the first-ever Acute Respiratory Infections Atlas, published by the World Lung Foundation in November 2010.

Brussels Airlines will cater to its responsibility too in the meantime to reduce emissions by ways of using up all its fuel and reducing the weight of its aircrafts and a lot of other eco-friendly initiatives.

Photo courtesy: Brussels Airlines

Read the full story on: Brussels Airlines Passengers Can Now Offset their CO2 Emissions

The Role Of Micro-Entrepreneurs In Promoting Stove Sales

The enterprise route to addressing development issues is finding resonance in efforts to provide both a solution and a lasting, self-sufficient entity that can sustain the change, as in the case of improved cookstoves to combat indoor air pollution. A Forbes CSR blog posting by Nicole Skibola, for example, highlights the efforts of Adventure Project to create mirco-entrepreneurs to sell stoves in rural villages earlier in Africa and now in Haiti.

The Adventure Project works with on-the-ground partners who then manufacture and distribute a poverty-alleviating product or service tailored to customers at the bottom of the consumer pyramid.

According to the report, Adventure Project works with nonprofit International Lifeline Fund (ILF), which has been building stove programs in Uganda, Sudan, & Kenya. The stoves are produced locally, and ILF trains a sales force of female micro-entrepreneurs to sell the stoves in rural villages. The ILF stove is coal powered, but uses half the amount of coal of current stoves and has very low emissions. It has an insulated combustion chamber as opposed to an open fire. It cooks food at a higher temperature, as well, cutting down on the time spent cooking.

The stoves are sold at subsidized rates villagers can afford. ILF, in partnership with the Adventure Project, scaled the project to Haiti after the earthquake hit. ILF is now in the process of setting up a local factory so it can continue to distribute more stoves in Haiti, and build a sustainable social enterprise.

According to the ILF website, "Understanding that the long-term sustainability of its fuel efficient stove program depends on the genius of the free market, Lifeline has developed an affordable metallic version of its stove and set up a “factory” in Northern Uganda with the capacity to produce more than 1,000 of them each month.

Lifeline has since fostered a vibrant commercial market for these stoves through a concerted advertizing campaign and the creation of a sales force of some three dozen female micro-entrepreneurs who it has set up as stove vendors. In short, Lifeline’s FES program is building local capacity – creating jobs for skilled laborers and independent salespersons while, at the same time, improving the health and livelihoods of their customers."

Pointing out that the aid and charity model to fix social problems fail to deliver poverty alleviation strategies, Beck Straw, co-founder of the Adventure Project, says supporting a new class of micro-entrepreneurs results increating a lifestyle of self-sufficiency, rather than one of aid-dependence.

“In today’s economy, businesses and their consumers understand the importance of creating jobs. It’s a matter of changing perceptions – we need to teach our businesses, and our consumers, that investing in social ventures will save lives and spur economic growth,” Straw is quoted as saying.

Read the full story, "Cleaner Cookstoves For Christmas"

The Priority Is Building Better Stoves And Creating Awareness

Shell Foundation is promoting clean stoves in India through "a market-based approach with private sector participation, focusing on availability, affordability, accessibility and accountability" says a report by IANS published in The Times of India which draws attention to indoor air pollution being a killer almost on par with AIDS.

According to the report, "Stove fumes as big a killer as AIDS", Shell Foundation is collaborating with stove manufacturers and microfinance institutions in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to promote the improved kitchen stoves.

"Given that firewood will continue to be used in most rural households, it is now largely accepted that the most effective way to reduce smoke is through improved stoves," the report quotes Anuradha Bhavnani, regional director of Shell Foundation.

"This is why building better stoves and finding a way to persuade the poor to use them has become a priority," she added.

Over the past one year, the Foundation has tested several strategies in collaboration with the Anganwadi workers, stove manufacturers and microfinance institutions.

The report also notes the efforts of the Global Alliance on Clean Cookstoves. Simon Bishop, Head of the Room to Breathe initiative of the Shell Foundation says that the fund being raised by the alliance will address key issues in propagating the use of clean cookstoves. Says Bishop, "To create a global market for clean cookstoves, there needs to be direct support for the stoves market, indirect research on health, climate change, materials and other areas, and a general increase in awareness and knowledge about the issue and the sector."

Read the Full Story: Stove fumes as big a killer as AIDS

Clean Cookstoves: Inexpensive Solution to Maternal Mortality

Health professionals from various medical institutions and organizations at  a conference organized by the University of Delaware made the point that high-tech developments have reduced maternal and infant mortality in developed nations while suggesting that solutions for attaining less maternal mortality in developing countries is available and is inexpensive. Health experts stated that low-cost clean cookstoves can significantly reduce deaths in poor nations, where women typically cook over open fires in enclosed spaces with babies and young children nearby. Cleaner cookstoves will reduce the exposure to toxic smoke from the stoves and thus prevent a  lot of respiratory diseases and hence, a better health for both the mother and the child.
  
These were among the issues discussed by close to 250 health professionals from various medical institutions and organizations attending a conference organized by the University of Delaware and sponsored by the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance(DHSA) to address women and children’s health research as per a report in  the UDaily.

The meeting aimed at finding same ground for formalized collaborations, to highlight areas of research which have precarious mass being affected and to meet the needs of  the communities at large which effect the health outcomes.

The central discussion was on reproductive health of women with regard to maternal mortality. Sarah Berga, M.D., the James Robert McCord Professor and Chair of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Emory University School of Medicine, cited challenges like maternal mortality, substandard adolescent reproductive health, affordability and access, and a highly variable level of health literacy which results in a substantial number of cases of maternal mortality every year in the United States.

Photo Courtesy: UDaily

Read the full story on: DHSA draws diverse crowd to discuss women and children's health research

Cancun Talks Pave Way for Environmental Benefits

The UN Climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, wrapped up with some important developments leading the world on a path towards constructive global action on climate change, United Nations Foundation President Senator Timothy E. Wirth has said in a statement.

The UN Climate Agreements, endorsed by 193 countries, are seen to be the "building blocks for global action" by the UN Foundation that will advance the world toward improvements on key environmental issues, such as deforestation, technology cooperation, adaptation, and financing. The agreements are aimed at persuading the countries to practice low-carbon development plans and strategies, which will ensure economic strengthening and national security whilst protecting the environment.

 "The agreements themselves, as well as the resulting measures that will be implemented around the world, will build confidence in the multilateral negotiations process. These efforts will deliver environmental benefits and pave the way for additional agreements on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the reduction of powerful warming agents such as methane, refrigeration gases, and black carbon from diesel engines and cookstoves.”, said Timothy E Wirth

Wirth said, “The evidence of a destabilized climate is everywhere – from the global temperature record to the shrinking Arctic ice cap to the increasing incidence of extreme weather events. Negotiators in Cancún made important progress toward cooperative action to combat the destructive results of climate change. As the Cancún Agreements are implemented and the world looks at ahead to two more rounds of talks, we should continue the strategy of developing the building blocks that will move us to a greener energy economy.”

For the full statement: Statement by Timothy E. Wirth, President, United Nations Foundation

EPA and Peace Corps to Assist Clean Cookstove Distribution

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S Peace Corps have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to assist stronger institutional ties between the two organizations and explore opportunities to collaborate on a wide range of environmental issues -- including efforts to bring cleaner cookstoves to millions in the developing world – while connecting with the youth, enhancing the dialogue on environmentalism and supporting communities in problems in the United States and across the world, according to an EPA Press Release.

Under the MoU, EPA and the Peace Corps will delve into prospects to connect on issues such as distributing clean cookstoves. It will try to aid easy availability to fuel-efficient stoves, bio-digesters and solar ovens at the household and school levels so that the people are able to make informed decisions on issues that affect the environment.

EPA Administrator, Lisa P Jackson and Director of Peace Corps, Aaron Williams signed the MOU. “The partnership between EPA and the Peace Corps marks an important advance in the work and mission of both organizations,” said Jackson. “EPA and the Peace Corps can expand our efforts both here at home and throughout the world, combining our experiences and knowledge to tackle complex and pressing environmental issues confronting our global community.”

“Every day, thousands of Peace Corps volunteers around the planet work with local communities to find sustainable solutions to some of the most pressing environmental issues,” said Williams. “Our collaborative work with the EPA will help empower more communities to make environmentally friendly choices.”

The organizations will also work on environmental education, community monitoring, solid waste, waste water and safe water management, and climate change.

For the full press release: EPA and Peace Corps Sign a Memorandum of Understanding

The Making Of Estufa Finca

Efforts to build improved cook stoves are resulting in solutions that combine an appreciation of thermodynamics with the social and culinary needs of people and their environment. A Seattle area artist Art Donnelly, for example, invented a clean-burning biochar stove which he now propagates through a non-profit organization called Seachar in Costa Rica.

Donnelly's stove runs on garden waste and was inspired by his experience while travelling in South America, says a report in Kuow.org by Joshua McNichols. He explains that when a piece of wood is burnt, it actually burns twice. At the beginning the fire is bright, with lots of flames. Later, after all the resins and things have burned off, the flame dies down a bit and one is left with glowing embers,charcoal. This is when the wood releases most of its carbon to the atmosphere.

Donnelly says that his stove makes efficient use of the first stage when the fire is bright. The smoke is consumed in the flames and therefore there is almost no emission. He further says,"Because it is so efficient you don't need to go to the second stage of the fire. Instead, you remove the burning embers from the stove with a pair of tongs and drop them in a bucket full of water."

These stoves do not need to use wood for fuel. One can fuel these stoves with garden waste including corncobs and goat poop. And that is why Donnelly has taken his stoves down to Costa Rica. He has brought stoves to the same women and children he saw cooking at smoky fires years ago. Over the next cacao harvest season, Donnelly will carefully track what they put into their stoves — and what they take out.

According to SeaChar.org, it is working with partners around the globe to Reinvent Fire. "Our elegant and affordable Estufa Finca (Farm Stove) works by burning the smoke that would escape a traditional fire. Able to use a wide range of waste biomass as fuel, these stoves will save lives and trees. As an add benefit the stoves produce the soil building charcoal known as biochar, a form of fixed biocarbon which can store excess CO2 for thousands of years."

To read the full story: Clean-Burning Cookstoves
Also see SeaChar.org

Malta Joins Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves

As part of its 2010 fast-start climate finance pledge, the government of Malta donated €125,000 ($165,000) to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, an initiative led by the United Nations Foundation. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership, which aims at replacing traditional cookstoves with modern and clean cookstoves in developing countries, according to a report in the Malta Independent Online and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

The announcement was made at a signing ceremony in Cancun, Mexico, by George Pullicino, Minister for Resources and Rural Affairs, and Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, which leads the work of the Alliance.

“Malta is proud to be making this financial contribution to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves as part of its 2010 fast-start finance pledge made in the context of the Copenhagen Accord,” said Minister Pullicino. “We fully support the work being undertaken by the Alliance to promote the adoption of clean and efficient cooking solutions in the developing world, particularly in neighbouring Africa. We appreciate that this will help reduce the exposure of women and children to unhealthy cooking smoke, and lead to a reduction in the use of fuel, including firewood, as well as in the emission of gases that contribute to climate change.”

“Malta is making a welcome and needed contribution to assist the mission of the Alliance, pursuant to its national pledge to support climate finance mechanisms,” said United Nations Foundation President Timothy E. Wirth. “These resources will help the Alliance develop standards for clean stoves, support climate and health research, and mount an advocacy campaign to raise awareness about the severe health and environmental impacts from dirty cookstoves and the toxic smoke they create. Sustainable technologies, such as clean and efficient cookstoves, are essential in order to expand access to energy while drastically reducing the pollution it produces.”

Malta joins Germany, the United States, Denmark, Peru and Norway as government supporters of the Alliance, in addition to Shell, the Shell Foundation, Morgan Stanley and half a dozen U.N. agencies, including the World Health Organization, World Food Programme and UN Environment Programme.

Photo Courtesy: Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves

Halima's Prize Winning Stove In Dafur

Halima, a 28-year-old-mother has designed a stove that burns efficiently, consumes less wood and produces less smoke as compared to her partakers in a contest conducted by World Food Programme (WFP) in Northern Darfur. The contest was among local women who were trained by WFP to see who could design the most efficient model.

Halima has won a US $300.00 cash prize for the stove and its innovative design which can burn anything from wood to cow dung to household waste. Halima learned the laws of thermodynamics and the skill to make an efficient stove during a training course organised by WFP as part of its Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy (SAFE) initiative in Northern Darfur.

Halima has named the stove Sabrin after the name of a dear friend and proudly shows the way the pot sits over the cooking surface for maximum use of the heat. “It produces less smoke and saves me time,” she says proudly. “Instead of spending hours and hours gathering wood, I can look after my family and work in my vegetable garden.”

In the arid plains of northern Darfur, gathering firewood takes hours and exposes women to the threat of belligerence; and also a lot of deforestation takes place, increasing the possibilities of drought and floods. The stoves that WFP has trained the local women on; are fuel efficient as they consume around two-thirds less wood than the traditional way of cooking which means women not having to spend a lot of time rummaging around for wood, as per WFP report.

These stoves produce much less smoke, the cause of deadly indoor air pollution, which kills over 1.5 million people every year.Halima, however feels that one of the best things about her stove is that it’s safe. She can walk away from the stove while her food is cooking and can run errands without worrying as in case of cooking on an open fire.

The project was aimed at scaling up distribution of fuel-efficient and “improved mud” stoves to assist almost 100,000 women in North Darfur.

Photo Courtesy: World Food Programme

Read the full story: Darfur Mother Designs Award-Winning Stove

The Jompy Stove: World Challenge Finalist

The Jompy Stove which allows boiling water and cooking simultaneously made it to the 12 finalists for the 6th World Challenge, shortlisted by BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell.

The World Challenge is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroot level. This year, there were 800 nominations, 12 finalists, one winner and two runners up. The finale this year of World Challenge 2010 was filmed in Amsterdam with Zeinab Badawi announcing the winners.

The Winner of the Challenge is a project from Philippines and the two runners up projects are from Peru and Guatemala.

The Jompy Stove is a lightweight and inexpensive stove-top device that sits between a cooking pot or an open flame to rapidly heat water. Invented by David Osborne, a plumber from Scotland, this simple technology could save millions who die from drinking contaminated water. The Jompy is a win-win technology, where householders can cook a meal whilst killing bacteria in dirty water at the same time. Gravity pushes the water through the Jompy, and it even works on simple three stone fires, making it perfect for use in the bush. It's now being supplied to Uchumi supermarkets in Kenya.

The Jompy is a highly effective water boiler that allows the consumer to carry out two tasks at the same time: boiling water whilst cooking.This unique product (weighing just 600g) can boil 1 litre of water every 45-60 seconds with the water reaching temperatures of up to 86 degrees, drastically reducing the amount of fuel required; as well as providing a means of clean hot water to improve sanitation.

Photo Courtesy: World Challenge 
Website:  "The Jompy" Water Boiler
Read the full story on:  World Challenge Finalists Announced;

Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves Engages Cancun Conference

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves' presence at the Cancun conference is a good marker of the extent to which there is increasing recognition of the role played by inefficient combustion of biomass for domestic energy. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and the United Nations Foundation in Cancún will be hosting a breakfast roundtable on Black Carbon, Cookstoves, and Climate Change on Wednesday, December 8.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico started on 29th November, 2010 with calls for commitment and compromise, as per a Press Release, issued by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

As per the Press Release, Mexican President Felipe Calderón cited last year’s hurricane in Mexico, this year’s floods in Pakistan and fires in Russia as examples of increasing incidences of natural disasters brought about by climate change and already affecting the poorest and most vulnerable.

“Climate change is an issue that affects life on a planetary scale”, he said.

Carbon dioxide is not the only kind of pollution that contributes to global warming. Other potent warming agents include three short-lived gases — methane, some hydrofluorocarbons and lower atmospheric ozone — and dark soot particles. The warming effect of these pollutants, which stay in the atmosphere for several days to about a decade is already about 80 percent of the amount that carbon dioxide causes, as per the New York times.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, professor of atmospheric physics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and David G. Victor, professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, writing in The New York Times say from a political point of view, the most appealing greenhouse emissions to reduce are ozone and soot, because they contribute so much to local air pollution. After all, people everywhere care about the quality of the air they breathe and see — even if most of them are not yet very worried about global warming. A desire to clean up the air is a rare point of commonality between developing and industrialized nations.

 Energy poverty alleviation will come into play to decide the strategies to slow global warming. The opportunities to reduce black carbon emissions will be discussed. The emissions come mostly from the inefficient and incomplete burning of biomass and unimproved diesel engine emissions, as per the Charcoal Project.

In the course of 2010, all 37 industrialised nations and 42 developing countries, including the largest emerging economies, submitted targets and voluntary actions to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions, as per the Press Release.

Photo courtesy:  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Better Energy Makes For Lesser Energy Use

As per a report in National Geographic, in two small villages on Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast, a project to improve electricity service had a remarkable side benefit—household energy use actually dropped nearly 30 per cent. When efficient compact-fluorescent (CFL) lightbulbs were added to the mix, energy savings surpassed 40 percent.

“It shows that you can meet development objectives for the poor and climate objectives for all of us at the same time,” said Daniel Kammen, chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency at the World Bank, and co-author of an analysis published in the weekly journal Science,The Energy-Poverty-Climate Nexus.

As per National Geographic.com, the study set out to demonstrate a method for measuring both the climate and financial benefits of making investments that improve delivery of reliable, affordable energy for poor communities. Mobilizing such investment is crucial, with 1.5 billion people around the world living without electricity. Another 1 billion people have unreliable electricity, and nearly half the global population relies on unhealthy and polluting wood, charcoal, and dung stoves for cooking.

The United Nations said in a report co-written with the International Energy Agency that its goals for fighting extreme poverty will fall short unless nations also work to bring electricity and modern, safe cooking technology to the “energy-poor” people around the world.

The analytical method outlined in the paper is “very helpful for certain contexts, particularly for looking at how increasing energy efficiency can help support energy access," says Richenda Van Leeuwen, senior director on energy and climate for the the United Nations Foundation, a non-profit that supports the work of the UN. She said she especially sees potential for the approach to be adapted for addressing the global problem of primitive cookstoves. Inefficient wood and waste stoves, used by 3 billion people around the world, create black carbon particulate emissions, a large contributor to climate change, and have a devastating impact on health—especially for women and children.

“There is really room for more research in this area for both traditional cooking and kerosene-based lighting, which both emit smoke,” Van Leeuwen said. “You could begin to monetize the savings of fewer trips to clinics, and fewer treatments for acute pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses that are common among people breathing in cookstove smoke day in and day out.”

Van Leeuwen said the approach is among those being weighed by the new public-private partnership, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the United Nations; global energy company Shell and its Shell Foundation; investment bank Morgan Stanley; and the nonprofit SNV-Netherlands Development Organization.

Kammen’s new study underscores the importance of doing a similar analysis for the world’s poor, who can spend more than 30 percent of their income on energy services. In wealthy countries, only 2 to 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product is spent on energy. “Because energy services are often expensive,” said Kammen, “finding ways to provide them more efficiently benefits the poor more than the rich.”

Representative photograph: 2009 UNEP Sasakawa Prize Co-Laureates
Read the full story on: Fighting Poverty Can Save Energy, Nicaragua Project Shows

Re-emerging TB in Africa Linked To Poverty

According to a recent report by STOP TB department of the World Health Organization, high poverty levels in Africa are driving the re-emerging tuberculosis pandemic. According to the report in VaccineNewsDaily.com, over 1.7 million people died from TB (including 380,000 women) in 2009. TB is among the three greatest causes of death among women aged 15-44 years.

TB is thought of as more likely to spread in these low-income regions as a result of overcrowding, malnutrition, lack of proper housing ventilation, indoor air pollution and long distances to health centers.

“TB in Africa is precipitated by poverty and social conditions that elevate the risk of infection,” said Mario Raviglione, director of the STOP TB department of the WHO.

A recent study by Professor Anthony Harries, a senior advisor to the Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, showed that many patients in Malawi who tested positive for pulmonary TB had related low-income social conditions. Thirty-six percent of the patients lived in mud hut houses, 75 percent had no access to piped water, 45 percent had a monthly income of less than $10 and 92 percent had no electricity in their homes.

Another factor in the spread of the pandemic is that many patients visit traditional healers before attempting mainstream medical treatment. This causes the condition to worsen and makes the medical treatment less effective.