The Charcoal Project is thrilled to join the global Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA)! The organization’s 330 partners contribute their resources and expertise to reduce smoke exposure from cooking and heating practices in households around the world. The partnership works on four priority areas: Meeting the needs of local communities for clean, efficient, affordable and safe cooking and heating options; Improving cooking technologies, fuels and practices for reducing indoor air pollution; Developing commercial markets for clean and efficient technologies and fuels; and Monitoring and evaluating the health, social, economic and environmental impact of household energy interventions The among the Continue reading
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But what does it really mean to be energy poor?
In reading up on the IEA’s World Energy Outlook released today, I stumbled upon the most compelling and sobering picture of what it means to be energy poor in this world today. The excerpt comes from a the acceptance speech given by WOE director, Dr. Fatih Birol, in 2006. Read the whole speech here. Energy Economics: A Place for Energy Poverty in the Agenda? Fatih Birol* Unfortunately, the energy-economics community has given far less attention to the challenge of energy poverty amongst the world’s poorest people. Over the past five years, less than 20% of the articles that have appeared Continue reading
Stacking up to each other: fuelwood vs charcoal
This fascinating little map (see explanation at the bottom) came up in an update from the International Energy Agency through its World Energy Outlook bulletin, which bills itself as “the authoritative source of energy analysis and projection.” What’s interesting about this (uninspiringly titled) document, Implication of energy poverty on health & environment, is the roles it assigns to fuelwood and charcoal. Consider this: Fuelwood is more often gathered from the roadside and trees outside forests, rather than from natural forests. Clearing of land for agricultural development and timber are the main causes of deforestation in developing countries. Studies at the Continue reading
To really succeed in Copenhagen, tropical forest protection needs smart stoves and briquettes
There’s little doubt that Copenhagen will allow for some form of compensation to countries that substantially protect their forests. This is the essence of REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). Already a handful of developing countries have joined the World Bank in establishing the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, a framework for the day when the fat pipe from industrialized countries starts flowing dollars in exchange for the protection of forests. I’m wondering if that’s what’s behind Rwanda’s motivation to plant 20 million trees by 2012, thus raising its forest cover by 3.5%. The plan is to raise this figure Continue reading
Peru: A millenary tree's last stand
Today’s NYT article titled Ecosystem in Peru Is Losing a Key Ally tells the familiar story of how poverty and cultural tastes are rapidly sealing the fate of the arid-dwelling huarango, a unique species of trees that can live more than one thousand years. According to the article, haurango rivals teak in hardness and its embers are prized for outlasting any other form of wood charcoal. It is also viewed by Peruvians “as the prime wood for charcoal to cook a signature chicken dish called ‘pollo broaster.’ ” (Judging from the online recipes, comments, and images, the dish might make Continue reading