A growing desire to explore non-CO2, GHG-emission-busting options opens the door for delivering efficient technologies and renewable fuels to fast growing parts of Africa and the world that are hungry for energy.
This should be sweet music to the ears of The Charcoal Project supporters who believe wood energy can be compatible with environmental conservation, GHG emissions reduction, and a source of renewable energy for low-carbon economic growth.
Absent in the majority of the speeches we heard at last week’s summit of African Energy Ministers in Johannesburg were references to biomass, either as a renewable fuel with the potential to deliver significant energy for economic growth, or for its contribution to sub-Saharan Africa’s energy balance.
African countries hoping to cash in on the $100 billion carrot being dangled by climate change negotiators for adaptation and mitigation in the developing world will first have to figure out how to sustainably provide energy to the more than 90% of people in sub-Sahara that depend on wood and charcoal for cooking and heating.
Climate change is likely to adversely affect the poorest people in the developing world. But solutions like REDD could end up hurting them as well.
When it comes to “clean cookstoves,” to paraphrase a former US president, “it depends what your definition of the word “clean” is…