UNEP-WMO Study Says Tackling Black Carbon And Ozone Can Retard Global Warming

A study by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) states that reducing black carbon and tropospheric ozone will slow the rate of climate change within the first half of this century. According to the study, “Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone”,  scientific evidence and new analysis demonstrate that control of black carbon particles and tropospheric ozone, by quickly implementing emission reduction measures, would have immediate and multiple benefits.

The report is quick to caution that this does not by any measure mean letting CO2 off the hook. On the contrary, the success of CO2 containing measures is likely to encourage additional activities to address the short term impact of black carbon and tropospheric ozone.

The issue of black carbon and the significance of its impact on the climate has been identified but little understood till date. In the absence of definitive research, the impact of reduced soot on climate change has not been well understood.

Now, the UNEP-WMO study claims that reducing emissions by fully implementing identified measures would have immediate impacts on climate change including reducing future global warming by 0.5˚C. Further, it would have substantial benefits in the Arctic,the Himalayas and other glaciated and snow-covered regions.

Indeed, the report contends that the measures of reducing emissions could reduce warming in the Arctic in the next 30 years by about two-thirds compared to the reference scenario, with all the associated lowering of risk of changes in weather patterns and increase in global warming.

The measures that would reduce black carbon emissions range from installing diesel particle filters for road and off-road vehicles to elimination of high-emitting vehicles in road and off-road transport. The UNEP-WMO report lists a series of measures in the residential space including replacing coal by coal briquettes in cooking and heating stoves, introduction of pellet stoves and boilers, using fuel made from recycled wood waste or sawdust to replace current wood-burning technologies in the residential sector in industrialized countries and the introduction of clean-burning biomass stoves for cooking and heating in developing countries.

The report recommends substitution of clean-burning cookstoves using modern fuels for traditional biomass cookstoves in developing countries, replacement of traditional brick kilns with vertical shaft kilns and Hoffman kilns and replacement of traditional coke ovens with modern recovery ovens.

Photo Courtesy: Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves

Sustainable Energy Access for Africa: Cleaning Up Homes And Climate

Focusing on Energy Access as a means of delivering health benefits for millions is also increasingly being seen as a way of combating the challenge of climate change. Initiatives such as the Energy for All 2030 Project, an EU-wide initiative for more and better funding for energy access projects in Sub Saharan Africa, is now part of a broader trend of trans-national initiatives that not only develop strategies but also drive action on the ground.

Swedish researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Stockholm, Sweden, Fiona Lambe and Patricia Tella, say the Institute is playing a leading role in highlighting the issues for Swedish and European Policy makers. They are working to create a platform for dialogue between African and European civil society as well advocating more policy focus and financing at the EU level for the goal of universal energy access.

According to the authors, “Supporting developing countries to scale-up access to sustainable energy for cooking will not only bring positive effects for climate change; it will improve the health and economy of the world's most vulnerable households. What's more, the cost of achieving universal energy access in the coming decades is surprisingly low.”

The initiatives on Energy access are focused on developing viable alternatives in critical areas such as improved cook stoves that can make a significant difference.

Indoor Air Pollution and the impact of soot from cook stoves on the climate are both issues that have a ready solution in improved cook stoves.

The researchers point to the success of the ethanol fuelled “CleanCook” stove, originally Swedish technology, in Ethiopia. Ethiopian NGO, Gaia Association has pilot tested these stoves in households in Addis Ababa and in a number of refugee camps with very positive results. Commercial distribution of stoves will start soon as Ethiopian households have shown readiness to switch completely to ethanol.

A study by Bailis, Ezzati and Kammen says that without systematic changes, household biomass use will result in an estimated 8.1 million Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI) deaths among young children in sub-Saharan Africa alone between 2000 and 2030.

The projected number of people who use traditional biomass as wood and manure would rise from 2.7 billion today to 2.8 billion in 2030 (according to International Energy Agency (IEA) and reported by InDepthNews) and this, will only exacerbate the situation even further.

IAP causes health hazards on one hand and on the other is afflicting climate change. Black carbon or soot from stoves is thought to be the second biggest contributor to global warming after CO2.

Read the full story on: Sustainable energy access for Africa: a win-win solution for climate and development
Photo Courtesy: Project Gaia

Organisations Join Hands Across Borders To Encourage Clean Cookstoves

Concerted action on the ground is enabling global players in the improved cook stoves space to propagate awareness of the issues associated with Indoor Air Pollution. It also means they increasingly tap into local communities to better understand behaviour, cooking methods, fuel economics and challenges of access and affordability.

From Africa to Asia, international organisations, alliances, regional and local experts and institutes, along with global and local research entities, are joining hands to transfer knowledge and technology. They also gain valuable experience on the ground that they can then take back to their labs for further analysis and a view to solving the holy grail of cook stoves – how to create quality product that sell for less than $10.

One such recent effort was in Vientiane where 34 experts, academics and entrepreneurs from around the region got together to discuss and test cleaner, more efficient cookstoves.

The Stove Design & Testing Workshop, the first of its kind in Lao PDR, bought together participants from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, as well as trainers from Aprovecho Research Center.  The workshop was organised by SNV and the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy (LIRE) and funded by USAID and US EPA as part of their innovative Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI).

The Vientiane workshop helped build networks between major regional stakeholders working on combating indoor air pollution through deployment of improved cook stoves. The workshop also sought to set the ball rolling on a process that is expected to eventually lead to the distribution of half a million stoves over the next eight years, impacting the lives of at least two million people in Laos. Participants shared methods to design, evaluate, and commercialize improved-stoves that use less fuel and produce less smoke.

Such congregations take on added meaning when the national governments are themselves key players in finding solutions. In the Lower Mekong Regional, governments and NGOs are actively invested in efficient cookstove project.

According to WHO estimates, there are over 6,000 premature deaths in Laos every year due to the use by 69 per cent of rural Lao people of wood and charcoal. According to a WWF study, 70 per cent of Lao’s greenhouse gas emissions are a result of deforestation.

Read the full story on: Recipe for Success: Improving Cook Stoves in Lao PDR  and                               U.S. Embassy Supports First Clean Cookstove Workshop in Laos

Raising Cook Stove Awareness And Funding On Facebook

In the words of Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), clean cookstoves in the developing world is a women's issue, a childrens' issue, and an economic issue. As this significantly affects the lives of the women and children, who sit near cooking hearths for hours together and risk their lives, International Women’s Day seemed to be the perfect day for Entrepreneurs of the World to raise money for clean cookstoves by reaching out to people on Facebook.

Where Burkina Faso would possibly be just another country on the map of Africa to remember from school room days, it became for Facebook users a place where they could make a difference to the lives of women and children by donating a small sum.

The Foundation L’Occitane in partnership with Entrepreneurs of the World - Burkina Faso (EoW – BF) raised funds through Facebook with the operation “1 fan = 1 € ” between March 8 and March 16.

The operation collected € 6976 which EoW-BF used to fund training of 1380 women in Burkina Faso on forest preservation. These funds were also used to subsidize 50 per cent of the cost of improved cook stoves.

According to Armel, Social Business Manager at Entrepreneurs du Monde in Burkina Faso, “In 2010, over 70 bricklayers were trained by GIZ to build 3-stone improved cook stoves. This stove helps fight deforestation, while respecting local customs and the health of its users.”

EoW-BF actively uses medium of mass communication and social networking sites to not only raise awareness but to invite participation for their cookstove initiative in Burkina Faso.

Radio as a medium has higher number of audience in women owing to their routine, where they listen to radio programmes while attending to their house chores. EoW-BF has intelligently used this medium to raise consciousness on one of the hard pressing global issues of smoke in the kitchen and its consequent hazards.

Entrepreneurs of the World is working in nine countries presently and supports micro-entrepreneurial initiatives with five different tools.

"We Need More People Playing That High-Risk Angel Investor Role To Crack Development Problems"

At the core of the Shell Foundation’s enterprise solutions to poverty lies the belief that if you treat the poor as consumers and deliver the goods that the consumer wants, you are more likely to deliver sustainable and scalable solutions. After all, for any set of solutions to development issues, the alternative is to have an inexhaustible source of funds that will support it.

This basic philosophy was outlined in an interview of Chris West, Director, Shell Foundation to Sukalp Sharma of the Financial Express during his recent visit to India. According to Chris, Shell Foundation acts like an angel investor at a very early stage for social entrepreneurs. However, he believes that is more than money that counts in this stage of development of the enterprises.

According to Chris West, 

           “What we are trying to do with this enterprise approach is to show that working  like a business in tackling development issues is a more scalable and sustainable approach to solve problems of energy access. The conventional model has been one of ease on both sides. It's easy for people to write a cheque and it's easy for people to ask for only money.We need more people playing that high-risk angel investor role to crack these problems.”

Chris also believes that Shell Foundation stays close to Shell’s core activities by tackling global development challenges related to industry as it can leverage resources of Shell in the areas of its domain expertise.

Read the full interview in the Financial Express.

Shell Foundation’s Enterprise Based Solutions: A New Approach To Indian Development Challenges

Shell Foundation’s recent elucidation of its approach to development challenges by building scalable and sustainable enterprises argued that that such enterprises could be built only after investing in core capacity and systems. Equally, such enterprises required more than grant finance to become sustainable: They needed business advice, market access and governance support.

While this basic approach has been tested out in many parts of the world, as outlined in the “Enterprise Solutions to Scale Report”, the touchstone for Shell Foundation could well be its activities in India where new business models were tried out, a slew of programs underwent gestation and where the Foundation had both a fertile entrepreneurial context and a complex matrix of economic challenges.

On the occasion of a Round Table on “Maximizing Impact through Enterprise Development Solutions”, Shell Foundation released the Country study on the Scale Report, titled “Shell Foundation in India: From Traditional Philanthropy to  ‘enterprise-based' solutions".

India has been the single largest country recipient of Shell Foundation investment to date. Says the report, “The country presents a sea of opportunities fueled by the same size and dynamism that make its development journey complex. What has been referred to as ‘India’s urban awakening’ and the growth of India’s rural consumer market are just two examples: recent figures suggest that there will be 700 million new residents in Indian cities by 2050. Such trends present both challenges and opportunities to our own partners in India.”

The country report makes the point that the success that Shell Foundation has had in building scalable partnerships has resulted in creating new business models and a new approach to the Indian development challenges.

One such partner profiled in the report is Envirofit India which is addressing the greatest energy poverty issue that challenges India: inefficient stoves in poorly ventilated homes that lead to premature deaths of over 500,000 women and children in India. Shell Foundation has worked with Envirofit to develop a viable business model and establish distribution and sales networks for a durable clean cookstove.

In 2011, Envirofit will complete the registration of its Voluntary Carbon Programme developed in conjunction with Eco-Securities, making it the first stoves carbon programme of its kind in India. This development will enable Envirofit to reduce the consumer price or reinvest funds in addressing some of the key market barriers by building local assembly and manufacturing capacity.

Waste Not, Want Not: Biogas Saves Lives And Cuts Greenhouse Gases Says New Research

A new study from rural china says that biogas, a clean-burning fuel produced from animal waste, can significantly reduce both the harmful effects of IAP and greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the World Health Organisation, some 700 million people in rural China are affected by IAP, leading to approximately 420,000 premature deaths each year. In response, the Chinese government has subsidised the installation of more than 10 million bio-generators (also called anaerobic digesters) that use microbes to convert animal or human waste into clean-burning biogas, and systems to pipe this directly into rural homes.

Using biogas instead of traditional fuel sources such as coal, wood and crop waste has the potential to cut IAP and greenhouse gas emissions. Biogas, however, is predominantly methane – a potent greenhouse gas – leading scientists to worry that any leakages may mean such biogas systems are net contributors to global warming.

But new research into biogas in rural China, undertaken by an international team at the Department of Environmental Health at Emory University in Atlanta has found that using biogas fuel (even allowing for 10% with leaky systems) can cut contributions to global warming by up to 54% when compared against traditional fuels over the course of 20 years.

“The study is the first to demonstrate that in addition to improving public health, using anaerobic digesters could benefit the climate” says Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley. “That's a significant contribution”.

Justin Remais, an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University and his team researched six villages in Sichuan Province, covering 67 households. Thirty-five of the families burned traditional fuels for household needs while the remaining 32 households used biogas from anaerobic digesters.

The researchers concluded that if Chinese people living in rural areas switched to biogas, it would not only make a serious dent on the 420,000 premature deaths each in year, it would dramatically impact greenhouse gas emissions.

Read the full study here.

Read more about the process of generating biogas from waste in this excellent article on the Chemical and Engineering News website.

Latest Research From Denmark Adds Fuel To The Fire Around The Health Impacts Of IAP

Scientists from the University of Copenhagen have released new research on air pollution from wood stoves, furthering the world’s understanding about the health impacts of IAP. Their findings are the subject of Cheryl Katz’s latest feature for Environmental Health News.

“Recent research raises new concerns over the toxic substances borne aloft in wood smoke. Scientists say the tiny airborne specks of pollution carry carcinogenic chemicals deep into the lungs that trigger DNA damage and gene changes comparable to the hazards of cigarette smoke and car exhaust fumes” writes Katz.

As the world focuses more attention on Indoor Air Pollution as a global problem, new research is establishing a far wider spectrum of IAP-related diseases than at first thought. In addition to the well established correlation between heart and lung diseases and IAP,  new studies are claiming linkages between wood smoke and further illnesses, diseases and genetic changes.

“We found that wood smoke PM [particulate matter] has similar levels of toxicity and effects on DNA as that of vehicle exhaust particles,” said University of Copenhagen researcher Steffen Loft, whose team sampled the air from a Danish village where most homes were heated by wood-burning stoves, and compared it to air outside the smoke area.

Whilst the concept that harmful toxins are released when wood is burned are comparable to tobacco smoke or fumes from motor engines has been widely acknowledged for some time, the study by the University of Copenhagen is the first to characterize the minute particles and droplets of pollution released by wood fires.

It describes in detail the extremely small particles (PM 2.5 or 0.0001 inches) found in wood smoke that lodge deep in the lungs. These have the capacity to injure cells and damage DNA (causing potential carcinogenic changes), to interfere with the body’s ability to fight infection, and to cause oxidative stress linked to asthma and other lung diseases.

To support this, Katz cites a recent study by the University of British Columbia which determined that infants and toddlers living in areas with a lot of wood stoves and fireplaces are significantly more likely to get ear infections. The  study analyzed visits to the doctor for 45,000 children aged two and under in Vancouver and surrounding areas, comparing it to data on wood smoke pollution levels during the same period. The study is the first to show a connection between ear infections and neighborhood wood stoves and fireplaces. 

The correlation between ear infections and wood smoke exposure was as strong as the link with tobacco smoke. The study proposes that substances in the smoke suppress children’s ability to fight off common upper-respiratory tract viruses and bacteria which then migrate to the ear causing infections.

Read Cheryl Katz’s full article here.

Changing The TIDE In Karnataka

Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), an organization in Karnataka, India, came up with a solution to the problem of reaching out to women who cook on stoves: It turned the women of the village into entrepreneurs.

TIDE figured that it would be better to work directly with the users and adapted their cookers and stoves to the requirements of the women, says Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

TIDE also decided to train women to build and sell the stoves, priced at about US$ 5 or 6.  Women who built these stoves installed them as well for a small fee. This took care of the apprehension faced by women to ask for outside male help.

TIDE not only taught women how to build stoves, the women trainers of TIDE themselves were instilled with confidence in their own ability.

TIDE’s Director Svati Bhogle tells the story of Lalita Bai, a worker in the fields who signed up to be a stove builder because she wanted to earn money to send her daughter to Teachers Training School.  She went from village to village and built up such a successful business that not only did she get her daughter educated but now manages her own stove installation business. 

Lalita Bai has been awarded the CII Woman Exemplar Award-2007 in Micro-Finance and Enterprise in recognition of her spirit to move from labour to stove building. She has setup an enterprise for construction of household stoves and has built over one thousand stoves over three years.

Photo Courtesy: TIDE

Read the full story on: Indian women fight poverty with cooking stoves

Darfur Stoves Project And Plan Canada Partner Stoves Program

Darfur Stoves Project and the international development organization, Plan Canada announced the launch of a new partnership to provide fuel-efficient cookstoves to women in Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur.

The partnership seeks to protect Darfuri women by providing them with specially developed stoves which are more energy efficient, decreasing women’s exposure to violence while collecting firewood and their need to trade food rations for fuel.

According to Andrée Sosler, Darfur Stoves Project’s Executive Director, “The partnership with Plan Canada will help extend our reach, enabling us to reach 1,500 additional families in the next three months. We are delighted to enlist Plan as our newest field partner, and hope this will mark the beginning of a long-term collaboration between our organizations.”

In Darfur, conflict has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and created almost three million internally displaced persons (IDPs), most of whom have taken refuge in camps. Families in IDP camps receive food aid and cooking oil from humanitarian aid organizations; however, families are still responsible for gathering firewood for cooking. Because of the desert-like terrain and the large populations in the IDP camps, wood is scarce.

Traditionally, women and girls are responsible for obtaining cooking fuel, venturing for hours on foot to collect wood, risking assault during these treks. Because of increasing pressure on Darfur’s environment there is almost no wood available within walking distance of the camps, and today most women must sell a portion of their food aid for cash to purchase firewood.

These fuel-efficient stoves dramatically decrease the amount of fuel women need each day. For women still collecting wood, the stoves reduce the frequency of their treks outside the camps and their exposure to violence. For the majority who are now trading food aid for cash to purchase wood, the fuel-efficient stove enables them to save money and provide more food to their families.

Photo Courtesy: Darfur Stoves
Read the Press Release: Aid organizations launch partnership to provide clean cookstoves to women in Darfur