Beating the drum for Cooking Stove Offsets

 Lisa Ashford, global head of voluntary and new  markets at carbon offsetting specialist EcoSecurities, has argued that the carbon market has a part to play in helping accelerate the roll out of improved cookstoves through capacity building, acting as investment support and a market primer and making the stoves more affordable.

Writing in BusinessGreen.com, she says "offsets enable this switch in technology that not only creates emission reductions, but has real and tangible benefits in terms of improving health and living conditions, allowing more money to be spent on other basic services and commodities like education and food."

In the article "Making the case for cooking stove offsets", Ashford says "I want to bang the drum about energy-efficient cooking stoves."

Drawing attention to the challenges of enabling transition to improved stoves in countries with high incidence of indoor air pollution, she points out that while most cookstove projects do start small, "they have the ability to scale up after the first couple of years. The proof of the concept is more convincing as an increasing number of households start to use them. This dissemination is also largely bolstered by budding entrepreneurial networks that manufacture the new stoves and those which distribute and sell them."

According to Ashford, "Exchanges in skills have taken place between Asia and Africa in terms of the lessons taken on board and I am hopeful that carbon finance can continue to facilitate the expansion of this new technology into other geographies and markets. There are a number of cookstove projects in the development cycle from a carbon perspective, but the projects are complex and it is not a quick process to get them up and running either, both in terms of carbon (ie registering the projects) or of their on-the-ground-operation."

Read here the article "Making the case for cooking stove offsets"

12,000 Nigerian Schools Transition to Efficient Stoves

An efficient wood stove project initiated by ICEED and supported by the Swiss Embassy and GTZ has been kicked off in Bida, Niger State in June 2010, reports the Daily Independent in a report that covers the slew of initiatives being implemented in Nigeria over the past few months.

According to the report, the project seeks to develop technical standards and advocacy on replacing the inefficient three stone method of cooking with wood in secondary schools with modern and efficient woodstove technology.

According to the Independent, "By switching to this new technology, respiratory diseases as result of indoor air pollution will be reduced. It will also result in the reduction of the cost of wood, deforestation and green house gas emissions.  When completed, the project will provide the basis for advocacy to ensure that Nigeria’s over 12,000 secondary schools now use this efficient stove."

The institutional woodstove project will be an important addition to already existing efforts by Nigerian N.G.O’s such as Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) in disseminating efficient woodstove technologies, says the report.

Read the full report in the Daily Independent here.

Arunachal's Locally Developed Cookstove Saving Forests in the Global Bio-diversity Hotspot

People in the villages of Arunachal Pradesh's West Kameng and Tawang Districts have developed a new energy-efficient cookstove to reduce firewood consumption, in response to a decrease in firewood availability and high local market prices. This indigenous energy-efficient stove was developed from a technology adopted from Bhutan. The local people of India's North Eastern states have gradually learnt to manufacture it at a cheaper cost.

The cookstove is made of iron and costs between Rs 1500 and Rs 3000 in local markets and Bhutan.

According to a paper by J S Rawat, Dhruba Sharma, G Nimachow and Oyi Dai from the Department of Geography and Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, in Doimukh, Itanagar and published in Current Science, the stove is user friendly and has multiple features that meet the needs of the local climate. According to the researchers in the paper titled "Energy efficient chulha in rural Arunachal Pradesh", the stove consumes 50–60% less firewood per family per year compared to the traditional chulha (cookstove). According to the authors, "the improved chulha, with higher thermal efficiency of 60% compared to 6–8% in traditional ones, has potential to conserve firewood, thereby saving forests. It has longer life and can serve for 20–25 years if used judiciously."

The new stove has an iron body which emits sufficient heat to keep households warm in a state which has severe winters. The stove has features that reduce fire risk which is fairly high during the dry season in Arunachal Pradesh, according to the paper. The knob and safety lead help retain fire for longer periods. The ash tray at the bottom of the fire chamber prevents ash from falling on the floor and keeps the room clean and safe. The enclosed structure keeps the fire chamber warm which helps fuel to reach its combustion point rapidly and burn efficiently.As a result, it produces sufficient heat with far lesser use of firewood.

The indigenously developed improved cookstove has very significant implications in this Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot which is among the 25 identified hotspots worldwide. With more than 500 plant species of medicinal and pharmacological significance, this area is considered as a major ethno-botanical hotspot3–5. The state has 81.25% of area under forest cover inhabited by 26 major tribes.

More than 90% of the population use biomass as primary source of energy. This high dependency on firewood for cooking, water heating, space heating, lighting and livestock rearing, etc. is a major cause of forest destruction. According to the paper, the average per capita firewood consumption in the northeast is higher than the Indian national consumption level with rural–urban gap ranging from 17 to 52 kg. The consumption in rural areas of Arunachal Pradesh is about 61 kg per month which is almost three times higher than the national consumption rate.

The improved chulha, say the authors, has proved to be a boon to rural women, as it saves about 300 kg of fuel wood equivalent per year, besides reducing health hazards. This model, says the paper, is however, more suitable for the colder regions where room heating is needed during most part of the year and hot water is necessary round the clock.

The state of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India is uniquely situated in the transition zone between the Himalayan and Indo-Burmese regions. Arunachal falls within the Eastern Himalaya global biodiversity hotspot and is also among the 200 globally important ecoregions. It harbours the world’s northernmost tropical rainforests and is estimated to contain nearly 50% of the total flowering plant species in India.

Upfront Public Investments Key to Developing Capacities: UNDP Nepal Report

Expanding access to modern energy services is critical for poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But, overcoming substantial gaps in local and national capacities and strengthening governance is required to deliver, manage, operate and maintain the solutions to providing energy access, says a recently published UNDP/Government of Nepal report, "Capacity Development for Scaling Up Decentralised Energy Access Programmes: Lessons from Nepal on its role, costs, and financing" authored by Elisabeth Clemens, Kamal Rijal, Minoru Takada with contributions by Adonai Herrera-Martinez, Megha Shukla.

The report argues that public investment must be mobilised upfront to remove such capacity barriers. It shows that, while considerable upfront public investment is needed to develop local and national capacities for scaled-up rural energy service delivery, once made these investments can help drive down the cost-per-output and attract substantial financing from private sources at later programme stages.

For both the Nepal programmes, funding from public sources played a dominant role at the very beginning (well over 90 per cent), much of which was dedicated to capacity development. The share of public financing gradually declined to about 50 per cent at a later stage, suggesting that the pivotal role of public investments in developing national and local capacities subsequently attracted private financing.

The report takes lessons from two decentralized energy projects in Nepal that brought modern energy services to almost a million people in remote rural communities. The projects enabled 250,000 people to be reached by micro hydropower supplying electricity for lighting and mechanical power for agro-processing and other productive activities; and 580,000 people with access to improved cooking stoves.

According to the report, the key to the programme’s success was early public investment in capacity development, which developed local and national capacities required to deliver, manage, operate and maintain the solutions to providing energy access in rural areas.

Once made, these investments can help drive down the cost of utilities and attract substantial financing from communities and the private sources at later stages, as is the trend in Nepal.

According to the report, decentralized energy-access plans and budgets often do not adequately take into account the capacity development activities required for adoption of off-grid energy technologies by poor and rural populations, especially in areas where traditional delivery mechanisms, such as central utilities, are limited by geographical remoteness and small and/or fragmented markets. In such circumstances, national governments, local authorities, private entities, civil society organizations, and communities, all need substantial guidance regarding assessment of opportunities, mobilization of financing and resources, and design, implementation, and monitoring of energy access programmes.

Key capacity development efforts for the two Nepal programmes have focused on: (1) planning, oversight, and monitoring; (2) policies and regulations; (3) situational analysis; (4) stakeholder dialogues, communication, and community mobilization; (5) setting up and enhancing institutions; (6) training programme implementers and community members; and (7) implementation and management. Developing capacities in all these areas is essential for making the scale-up of rural energy access a reality.

Capacity development costs represent a significant portion of the overall costs of decentralized energy access programmes, especially in the initial stages, and must be fully taken into account in planning programme budgets.

Capacity development costs amounted to well over half of the total programme costs for both the Nepal programmes. Total programme costs for the Micro-Hydropower Programme over the study period (i.e., 1996–2006) were USD 14.3 million (at USD 110 per beneficiary, on average). Capacity development costs represented 56 per cent of the total costs. For the Improved Cooking Stoves Programme, total costs were USD 1.5 million between 1999 and 2004 (at about USD 2.6 per beneficiary, on average). Capacity development costs accounted for 68 per cent of the total.

According to the report, reductions in per-unit programme costs over time were driven by progressive declines in capacity development costs. For the Improved Cooking Stoves Programme: the cost per stove fell by about 60 per cent during the study period (from USD 27 in 2000 to USD 11 per stove in 2004), with a decline in per-unit capacity development costs of 70 per cent, compared with a reduction in hardware costs of only 20 per cent.

Time for Less-smoke Chulhas

On World Environment Day,India's leading newspaper, Times of India devoted its edition to examining various issues and initiatives around environment. Noting that polluting chulhas are finally finding alternatives in efficient, less-smoke chulhas that reduce health and environmental risks, the Times of India reported on the efforts by Shell Foundation and Envirofit to make a difference through sustained campaigns in South India and Karnataka.

The report quotes Shell Foundation's Room to Breathe Campaign head, Simon Bishop, saying, "A new impetus is required to get the government and agencies to spread awareness on the ill-effects of firewood-inefficient stoves"

The Times of India story, "Use Less-Smoke Chulhas" says: "Which chulha would you prefer this Environment Day? Firewood chulhas are on their way out. After decades of using inefficient chulhas that lead to indoor air pollution (IAP), now the market has some models of efficient, less-smoke chulhas that can minimize the health and environmental risks.

IAP is the kitchen fume released by the burning of wood and biomass. Black carbon, a major environmental issue, is also the main component of soot, a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, the burning of biomass in rural cook stoves. However, now villagers have an option. The firewood consumption can be cut by 80% in case of fuel-efficient stoves.

“We are working in all four southern states. In Karnataka, we are in Gulbarga, Bidar, Chamarajnagar etc. Shell Foundation and Envirofit are particularly doing a lot of awareness activities in Shimoga. We have sold 1.20 lakh stoves already. So it’s clear that people are interested. But the user is usually the woman in the house but decision maker is the man. They often fail to understand what kind of health impacts the woman is facing,” says Envirofit MD Harish Anchan.

Various options like micro-finance partners are being used to make it easily affordable for villagers. The price range is around Rs 850 to Rs 2,500 for single and double pot stoves.

According to Simon Bishop who is leading the IAP campaign of Shell Foundation, internationally the campaign against IAP through efficient cooking stoves will pick up as it is one of the main ways to deal with carbon emissions.

Several organizations have already prepared a draft report on the initiative for development and deployment of cook stoves and action plan will be submitted to the ministry of new and renewable energy. “A lot of government resources had gone into the National Programme on Improved Cookstoves between 1985 and 2004 but the results were mixed. A new impetus is required to get the government and agencies to spread awareness on the ill-effects of firewood-inefficient stoves,” he said. 

RTI Launches Multi-Disciplinary Research Programs on Biomass Cookstoves

RTI International has launched a multidisciplinary research effort to understand and address the adverse health and environmental impacts related to the use of biomass cook stoves in developing nations, according to a RTI International News Release.

This effort will fill some technology gaps as well as help RTI better integrate and apply the huge range of Institute technical and societal research programs, staff and skills.

RTI International is one of the world’s leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice.

As part of this program, four different research teams, funded through the RTI Fellow Program, are exploring the scientific, societal and policy challenges associated with the stoves and their use.

RTI’s four projects are diverse but integrated, addressing concerns that include the following:

First, an assessment of biomass stove use in Sri Lanka. RTI researchers, working in partnership with a researcher with the Sri Lanka National Institute of Health, will review data on respiratory diseases and characterize stove use in-country. Incorporating comparative international research, the team will develop a comprehensive profile of risk factors and stove use, drawing attention to ethnic, gender, urban, rural and district characteristics of the issue.

Second, an effort to design cleaner biomass cook stoves. A cross-functional team of engineers and scientists will investigate existing stove designs and performance and explore innovative approaches toward improvements. In addition to considering overall combustion efficiency, the researchers will examine the links between stove design and operating conditions and the subsequent personal exposure concentrations.

Third, research to characterize emissions and exposure. This team will apply RTI’s 40 years of research on environmental contaminants to better understand the personal exposure and health effects of black-brown carbon emissions. The team will characterize emissions and resulting exposure using two different technologies—RTI’s MicroPEM™ and Optical Reflective Method.

Fourth, physical collection of dried blood spots to assess black carbon emissions. Specifically, the team will analyze blood samples for the presence and level of PAH-hemoglobin adducts, which indicate levels of black carbon exposure. This method will also use a baseline measure to assess the effectiveness of improved cook stove designs.

RTI began the “Grand Challenges” initiative last year to fund areas of research that are complex and require multidisciplinary but thoroughly integrated approaches and solutions to succeed.

“The work we are funding represents thinking at many levels,” said Lead Fellow Edo Pellizzari, Ph.D. “As part of our mission to improve the human condition, we at RTI are seeking to apply our wide-ranging scientific and policy research to real-world challenges in a manner that is culturally appropriate and sustainable.”

Photo: An RTI biomass stove design

The Indian Initative and the Challenge of Cook Stoves As Good As LPG

In a thoughtful commentary on the new Indian Government National Initiative for Advanced Biomass Cookstoves, C Venkataraman, A D Sagar, G Habib, N Lam and K R Smith say that such a clean energy option for the estimated 160 million Indian households now cooking with inefficient and polluting biomass and coal cookstoves could yield enormous gains in health and welfare for the weakest and most vulnerable sections of society.

The paper "The Indian National Initiative for Advanced Biomass Cookstoves: The benefits of clean combustion" is the result of a collaboration of authors from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi and the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

The paper notes that the initiative has set itself the aim of providing energy service comparable to clean sources such as LPG but using the same solid biomass fuels commonly used today. According to the authors, "to meet the requirements of true “LPG-like” combustion, even greater emissions reductions will be needed than now achieved by available technologies... Nevertheless, current advanced biomass stoves represent major improvement over those deployed in past improved stove programs...These technology development and deployment challenges are not trivial but we believe also not insurmountable, especially if we build on the lessons from the broad arena of technology innovation as well as recent initiatives in the cookstoves arena by corporate organizations, foundations, and NGOs."

Such a clean energy option for the estimated 160 million Indian households now cooking with inefficient and polluting biomass and coal cook stoves could yield enormous gains in health and welfare for the weakest and most vulnerable sections of society.  At the same time, cleaner household cooking energy through substitution by advanced-combustion biomass stoves (or other options such as clean fuels) can nearly eliminate the several important products of incomplete combustion that come from today’s practices and are important outdoor and greenhouse pollutants.

Using national surveys, published literature and assessments, and measurements of cook stove performance solely from India, the reports estimates that 570,000 premature deaths in poor women and children and over 4% of India’s greenhouse emissions could be avoided if such an initiative were in place today. These avoided emissions currently would be worth more than US$1 billion on the international carbon market. In addition, about one-third of India’s black carbon emissions can be reduced along with a range of other health- and climate-active pollutants that affect regional air quality and climate.

The complete article can be read at Venkataraman C, et al, The Indian National Initiative for Advanced Biomass Cookstoves: The benefits of clean combustion, Energy for Sustainable Development (2010)  

The Stove of Hope in Darfur

For the last seven years, Darfur has come to stand for extreme humanitarian distress caused by war. Conflict in Darfur has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and created more than two million displaced persons within the region. Many of these displaced persons now live in large IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps throughout Darfur. While global and humanitarian organizations address the many woes of this conflict zone, there are pockets of change effected which is making a difference to the displaced persons, mostly women. One such intervention that is making a world of difference is the Darfur Stoves Project.

There are two notable aspects of the Darfur Stoves Project. First, the compulsion for the project arose from the outcome of conflict. While Darfuris in IDP camps receive food aid and cooking oil from a variety of humanitarian aid organizations, the families are still responsible for gathering firewood as fuel for cooking. Although Darfur is almost entirely desert, scattered trees exist in the periphery of the camps. These trees and their branches are used as a nearby source for cooking fuel. However, due to the size of the displaced persons camps and the duration of their existence, wood is a scarce resource. As the environment around the camps become increasingly deforested, the time needed to gather firewood increases. Today, Darfuri women must walk up to seven hours, three to five times per week, just to find a single tree. As continuing pressure is placed on the environment, women and young girls must walk further and further from the relative safety of the camps in search of wood. These searches are the primary reason women and girls venture outside the camps.

When women and girls spend extensive time outside of the camps, they become increasingly vulnerable to acts of violence. As these events become more common, some women have decided to purchase wood from a middleman rather than search for it. However, as payment for the firewood, families are often forced to sell their food rations or spend what little income they possess. The economic and social costs of firewood mean that as many as half of Darfur families in displaced persons camps miss at least one meal per week. The search for firewood decreases both the human security and food security of Darfuri displaced persons.

The second notable aspect has been the global partnerships at play. At the invitation of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at the United States Agency for International Development (OFDA/USAID), Dr. Ashok Gadgil and a team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory traveled to Darfur in 2005 to assess appropriate stove technology for the region. The Berkeley-Darfur Stove is the result of that initial fact-finding mission (and the subsequent research) and is currently at use in over 5,000 homes in IDP camps in Darfur. Subsequently, the team also found that they could lower production costs, increase capacity and improve quality consistency by shifting manufacturing to India.

The majority of women in Darfur’s IDP camps cook with a traditional three-stone fire. This system requires four times the firewood needed to fuel a Berkeley-Darfur Stove®. Thus, the Berkeley-Darfur Stove® increases the efficiency of fuel use and lowers the amount of wood needed to cook any given meal.

The Berkeley-Darfur Stove® was designed in consultation with Darfuri women and built to the specifications of their needs. Design features of the Berkeley-Darfur Stove take into consideration types of meals cooked, the size and shape of local pots, frequency of use, and more.

In a recent interview to Triple Pundit, Andree Sosler, Executive Director of the Darfur Stoves Project says, "Giving something away for free is a disservice to the people who need it. This philosophy stems from the importance of establishing a feedback mechanism."

Excerpts from the Interview in Triple Pundit, The Darfur Stoves Project: A Market Solution to Poverty:

3p: The Darfur Stoves Project is just one enterprise led by TISS, independent of USAID but created in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley lab?
Sosler: OFDA/USAID introduced the Lawrence Berkeley team to CHF International, the initial partner for the project. The team advised CHF and trained their staff to test and adapt the stoves, etc. However, after sending a team to Darfur, and benefiting from analysis from business schools, we found that we could lower production costs, increase capacity and improve quality consistency by shifting our manufacturing to India. Fundamentally, it was a question of heightened comparative advantage. While some firms mass-produce stoves to turn a profit and others focus on generating local income and keep their production local, TISS works with the Lawrence Berkeley lab and our current field partner, Oxfam America to incorporate the strongest aspects of both models.

3p: The Darfur-Berkeley stove is for sale, not for aid donation. Can you expand on the value associated with an item bought versus donated?
Sosler: One of the things that drew me to the Darfur Stoves Project was the very strong belief that giving something away for free is a disservice to the people who need it. This philosophy stems from the importance of establishing a feedback mechanism. When you give something away you can do impact assessment and surveys, but you may not get good feedback on how valued your product is. That said, we just delivered 1,000 stoves for free. The ultimate goal is to negotiate with our partners to set a subsidized price above the price of scrap metal.

3p: In a 2008 interview with the Wharton Journal, you said, “My passion is to develop market-oriented solutions to poverty.” Is that still true? Any amendments or qualifications?
Sosler: Still true. I really believe that a feedback mechanism is crucial and lacking in many elements of international development. Yet, now that I’m working in an extreme humanitarian situation, I recognize that a fully functional market (as it would be defined at Wharton, or by most business schools) is not always optimal. When the goal is worldwide and less focused on those left behind, I would push for more sustainable businesses. I really do think that market solutions to poverty are the way forward.

For the full report and interview: The Darfur Stoves Project: A Market Solution to Poverty.

Photos: Darfur Stoves Project and The Triple Pundit.

Change Brewing in the Kitchen: Time for New Age Stoves

Ambuj Sagar, Professor of Policy Studies at IIT, writing in the Times of India makes the point that as opposed to the earlier almost two-decade-long Indian National Programme on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) that focussed on efficiency rather than clean combustion, the new National Biomass Cookstove Initiative by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy focuses on technology from two specific points of view.

One, that no technology dissemination can succeed without being useful and attractive to the “consumer”. And, two, that just because the ultimate target group is the poor, it does not mean that product has to be low-tech.

The write-up, titled "Change Brewing In The Kitchen: New-Age Chulhas May Finally Make Life Easier, Cleaner For Millions" says:

A quick backgrounder: more than 70% of the households in India still depend on biomass for their cooking needs. These fuels are mostly burnt in traditional chulhas — a three-stone design that leads to inefficient and poor combustion. The resulting pollutants not only lead to enormous health and social consequences for the poorest and the most vulnerable (especially women and children), but also contribute significantly to outdoor pollution as well as climate change.

It is incredibly shameful for India to have an estimated 160 million households suffer these impacts in the 21st century. Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people suffer the consequences of such poor household energy and the number is estimated to increase in absolute terms in the absence of directed policies to change status quo.
India had a National Program on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) that was initiated in 1984-85 and shut down in 2002.

While there were some questions about its ultimate effectiveness, some 35 million improved stoves were given out. The goals of that program were mainly improved efficiency rather than clean combustion. Recently, the ministry of new and renewable energy has launched a new National Biomass Cookstove Initiative, a very welcome and exciting development.

The government seems open to taking a very different approach. First of all, it begins with the understanding that no technology dissemination can succeed without being useful and attractive to the “consumer”.

Secondly, just because the ultimate target group is the poor, it does not mean that product has to be low-tech. In fact, the initiative intends to provide clean and efficient energy services that could compare with LPG and this objective cannot be met without the use of cutting-edge science and technology to design the next generation of cookstoves.

Providing LPG, of course, would be an even better option but it’s costly and would entail subsidies. In 2008-09, the LPG subsidy burden was Rs 17,600 crore and further increases are seen as unsustainable.

A report prepared for the ministry by an IIT Delhi and TERI team (of which I am a member) has suggested a novel approach – the use of a global innovation prize – as a way to push the frontiers of technology in this area. 

But success cannot come through new technology alone. The report indicates we still need to develop dissemination models that allow for product customization for local needs, build partnerships and networks that facilitate supply chains for biomass as well as cookstoves (and maintenance of the latter).

We will also require a testing and certification system that ensures quality products and builds consumer confidence. A carefully designed assessment system also needs to be in place to ensure that the cookstoves are indeed fitting the bill. But most of all, the program will require a sustained campaign to build awareness and understanding of the ill-effects of traditional cookstoves and promote better-performing alternatives.

What then might be the gains from a successful program? Some of us have tried to assess the potential benefits: as many as 5.7 lakh premature deaths of women and children and over 4% of India’s emissions of greenhouse gases may be avoided. Additionally one-third of the emissions of black carbon, a pollutant that is receiving increasing attention in the climate arena, too could be avoided.

The new cookstoves initiative is very much an idea whose time has come again – and not a moment too soon!

Costing the Earth: Rethinking Climate Change

In a BBC Radio 4 Program "Rethinking Climate Change" in the series "Costing the Earth", a spectrum of scientists and climate change activists discuss the Hartwell report which says that we need to start afresh if we are to have any hope of success.

These scientists point out the obvious failure to reach multi-national agreements on curbing emissions. Future strategy, they say, should be led by individual groups, governments and temporary alliances. Efforts should focus on practical solutions that bring other benefits alongside emission-control. If a strategy brings about poverty reduction or economic renewal then it is much more likely to attract widespread support than any programme labelled as 'anti-climate change'.

This group of scientists argues that the focus on carbon dioxide has been mis-guided from the start. They estimate that more than half of man-made warming can be attributed to sources other than the burning of coal, gas and oil, and most of those emissions are easier to reduce. We should tackle black soot, reactive nitrogen and methane before we make the kind of tough decisions needed to fight carbon dioxide.

In 'Costing the Earth' Tom Heap conducts a thorough examination of the new approach with experts including author Bjorn Lomborg, the UN's Yvo de Boer and climate negotiators from Oxfam and WWF. He asks if it's right to abandon all the efforts made over the last decade. Can we really save the planet without every major nation signed up to the same plan? Shell Foundations's Simon Bishop also talks in the program about improved cookstoves and the contribution it can make to reducing black soot.