Shell Foundation And Grameen Koota Help 92,000 People Breathe Free In Karnataka

The state of Karnataka in India hosts the largest number of Indian IT companies and an ever expanding technology base. Yet, despite all the state-of-the-art technology being developed, 75% of the people in the villages of Karnataka still cook over open fires and traditional stoves which exposes them to indoor air pollution, leading to respiratory diseases.

Now, efforts are being made by Grameen Koota Financial Services, Navya Disha Trust and Envirofit, backed by Shell Foundation, to change the situation, says a report in Prajavani, a regional language newspaper in Kannada. Their efforts have led to Grameen Koota helping 4000 households purchase Envirofit Jeevan Jyoti stoves, thereby impacting the lives of 92,000 people in 12 districts and 32 Talukas (sub-divisions) of Karnataka.

Reporting on an awareness raising camp held at the Gopalapura village in Karnataka, the newspaper reports that the effort is to create awareness on the benefits of clean cookstoves, demonstrate the working of Jeevan Jyoti stoves and inform villagers about the financial assistance given by Grameen Koota to buy the stoves.

Envirofit's Jeevan Jyoti stoves are promoted in the districts by Grameen Koota, a micro-finance institution with a membership base of 400,000 in Karnataka alone. Discussing the benefits of Jeevan Jyoti stoves, project co-ordinator K G Mahadesh said:

“(Modernised) chimneys are more expensive compared to Jeevan Jyothi stoves. They cost about Rs.5000 to Rs.6000 whereas the stoves cost Rs.1500. Moreover these stoves are handy and mobile. People can take these stoves wherever they want.”

Over 85,000 of their members have shown interest in purchasing Envirofit stoves as a result of the campaigns they have run so far. The subsidies Grameen Koota provides for poorer villagers range from Rs.700 to Rs.1400 – which goes a long way to encouraging increased uptake of the life-saving cleaner cookstoves.

Shell Foundation And Envirofit Leverage Carbon Credits To Cut Costs Of Cleaner Cookstoves

A recent story in The Hindu Business Line explores how Shell Foundation and Envirofit are reducing the cost of cookstoves for end-users by leveraging the sale of carbon credits.

Providing improved cookstoves affordably is a challenge for all organisations working in the IAP space. As Shell Foundation and Envirofit learned in the Indian and African markets, simply building awareness of the problem and providing a strong product offering aren’t enough. If the stoves aren’t priced competitively relative to the traditional alternatives, they simply won’t sell.

Manufacturers need to lower costs of production but price sensitivity is so great that this may not be enough, certainly not in the short-term. So how else to reduce the price to end-users? Government and charity subsidies are helpful – but to operate at scale a more stable form of cost offset is required. By leveraging carbon credits to offset manufacturing costs, Shell Foundation and Envirofit aim to provide a reduction in the retail price of cleaner cookstoves.

Pradeep Pursnani, Business Director of Shell Foundation’s cleaner cookstoves programmes, explains:

“In Africa, we found a lot of demand for the clean charcoal burning stove, but affordability was a big question. So, to help bring down its cost, we started a Shell Foundation Envirofit Carbon Fund with a corpus of up to $1 million. The Fund is independent and technology agnostic and will provide tailor-made solutions to stove manufacturers, women's groups and MFIs to make sale and purchase of stoves affordable. The fund will now be enhanced to $5 million to cater to India as well. A stove that costs around Rs 1,500 would be available for around Rs 1,000 to rural families."

Explaining how the carbon credits model for offsetting cookstove costs works, Pradeep continues:

“Stove manufacturers sell the reduced emission stoves at a discounted price, and recover the difference from sale of carbon credits. Though the stoves have the advantage of product quality, manufacturers are likely to see carbon revenues only flow in after 2-3 years. This means the manufacturers are left short of working capital. This is where Shell Foundation will step in. Its carbon fund for stoves will fund the subsidy and later recover it from carbon credits sales that it generates on the same stoves.”

This new method of partially offsetting manufacturing costs should make cleaner cookstoves accessible to a much wider market. This will allow more households to benefit from a reduction in IAP and more efficient cooking, while providing wider environmental benefits for all in terms of reduced emissions.

Read the full story on: Carbon credits to bring down cost of clean stoves for rural poor

Study Finds Indoor Air Pollution Causes Increased Blood Pressure in Older Women

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered significant links between IAP and increased blood pressure in a study of 280 women over 50 in rural China.

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, was carried out over a period of 24 hours, during which the women  wore portable devices that sampled the air they breathed in. This data was then mapped against the blood pressure of each of the participants to determine whether there was a correlation between the smoke being breathed in and increased blood pressure.

A huge number of households in rural China still rely on open fires and biomass fuels for cooking and heating their homes, creating smoke that can severely damage the health of the entire family. Researcher Jill Baumgartner and her colleagues found that IAP released by these methods of cooking stimulates the nervous system and constricts blood vessels. This significantly raises blood pressure in the short term, while in the long term IAP causes oxidative stress, further raising blood pressure. Increased blood pressure also leaves people vulnerable to other cardiovascular problems such as strokes and heart disease.

Greater adoption of clean cookstove technology will help combat these effects. The study estimates that the reduction in IAP caused by curtailing the use of biomass fuels would result in an 18 percent decrease in coronary heart disease and a 22 percent decrease in stroke among Asian women aged 50 to 59 years. These benefits could save the lives of 230,900 women in China alone each year.

Read the full study on: Indoor Air Pollution and Blood Pressure in Adult Women Living in Rural China