NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 5 – The government now wants to legalize the charcoal business in an attempt to beat illegal charcoal burning which is largely to blame for the loss of the country’s forest cover.
Charcoal
How Charcoal Fuels Irregular Armed Groups
President Barack Obama announced Friday (July 2oth) that the US was banning the sale of charcoal from Somalia to third countries. The effort is intended to deprive the Somali-based, Al-Quaeda affiliate, Al-Shabaab, from important revenue collected from the export of Somali charcoal to countries in the Gulf region.
NEWS: Nigeria: Growing Danger of Charcoal Smuggling
This increasing demand for charcoal as an alternative source of fuel in homes and some industries in Nigeria has snowballed into a smuggling ring across national borders, further destroying the already diminishing number of trees in the country.
Joint UNIDO and Kenya biomass project to begin in June
Kenya and UNIDO launch 5-year biomass project. This is welcome news considering that over 68 percent of the population in Kenya use biomass for cooking, whilst Kenya’s Ministry of Energy estimates that up to 95 percent of the energy consumed in rural areas is in the form of fuel wood, agricultural residue and animal waste.
NEWS: Why Energy Should Play a Crucial Role in Africa’s Development
By 2050… smoke from cooking fires will release about 7 billion tonnes of carbon in the form of greenhouse gases in Africa – that’s about 6 per cent of the total expected greenhouses from the continent. — Rwanda New Times