The Charcoal Project

Join PCIA’s upcoming webinars

Only a few days remain to register for the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air’s (PCIA) webinar on Impacts of Household Fuel Consumption from Biomass Stove Programs in India, Nepal and Peru. This is the second in the PCIA stove testing webinar series taking place this summer.

Michael Johnson, of Berkeley Air Monitoring Group, will present the results of in-home assessments conducted with fellow PCIA Partners in Nepal, India and Peru.

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At last. The moment you’ve all been waiting for: a reality show about clean cookstoves!

There’s no shortage of reality-inspired cooking shows in which participants struggle against long odds.

Now there’s a new offering, with a difference. It’s Stoveman, a four-part video series documenting the efforts of two young men who are part of a “low profit” business aimed at providing efficient rocket stoves to poor households in struggling places.

(taken from Andy Revkin, Dot Earth. The New York Times)

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NYT’s Nick Kristoff on visionary stove-fuel venture in Rwanda

Taken from the NYT Opinion Pages:

“Last year, Eric Reynolds, the co-founder of the outdoor sports gear company Marmot, contacted me with an aggressive business plan for rolling out fuel-efficient, low-pollution cookstoves across Rwanda. Having seen dozens of entrepreneurial projects in Rwanda start with a big bang and then founder for lack of momentum and commitment, I initially brushed off his enthusiasm. I gently explained that he would have to move to Rwanda if he was to get anything done, and he explained that this was exactly his plan.”

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NEWS: Tanzania’s burning question: Can REDD succeed amid a charcoal addiction?

Policy discussions around forests and climate change frequently refer to charcoal production as one of the main culprits of deforestation and forest carbon emissions. This is explicitly articulated in the Tanzanian Draft National Strategy for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) published in January 2011. Future “business as usual” scenarios predict a worsening of the situation.

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African economies leaving money on the table with current charcoal policies.

Revelations from Africa:

  • Africa must formally recognize its huge charcoal sector.
  • Solid biomass fuels could very well be the continents key to producing. homegrown sustainable renewable fuels for domestic and productive energy.
  • The negative impact of sky-rocketing food prices on education.
  • Energy efficiency and renewables can mitigate the pain of rising food costs.

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