When it comes to “clean cookstoves,” to paraphrase a former US president, “it depends what your definition of the word “clean” is…
GACC
Top 10 things I learned at the PCIA forum in Lima
At the invitation of the government of Peru, the PCIA hosted its fifth biennial international forum outside the capital during the last week of February.
The Charcoal Project was especially thrilled to be able to speak with program managers, carbon finance experts, manufacturers, and policy-makers.
We learned many things after speaking and listening to so many people. What follows is a tiny sampling.
Cancun and what it means for clean cookstoves, briquettes, and other appropriate sustainable energy technologies
Today marks the opening of the Cancun talks on Climate Change. They are a follow-up to last year’s Copenhagen discussion which, as everyone knows, did not yield the expected global agreement to effectively reduce greenhouse gases. A review of media coverage leading up to the Cancun event downplays expectations for any significant breakthroughs during this round. And if nothing substantive comes out of this week-long meeting, it will mark another nail in the coffin of the UN’s attempt to establish a globally binding agreement à la Kyoto Protocol. The outlook is not improved by the outcome of the US mid-term Continue reading
Using cookstoves to protect Mountain Gorillas
The pain of knowing that each year 2 million people — mostly women and children — die as a consequence of the inefficient combustion of household cooking and heating fuels, like wood and animal dung, is with good reason, the engine behind the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves this past September. But if the public health impact of indoor air pollution is not enough to convince people of the magnitude of the problem, then the UN’s most recent Human Development Report makes the clearest argument yet that Climate Change and destruction of the environment are the biggest Continue reading
Peak Oil vs Peak Biomass: Are we there yet?
This New York Times article, based on the IEA (International Energy Agency) latest World Energy Outlook, suggests humanity is on the downward slope of the oil availability curve. We’ve often wandered what analogies, if any, existed between the concepts of “peak oil” and “peak biomass.” After all, both the fossil fuel industry and the biomass fuel community speak of “energy efficiency,” “carbon and particulate emissions,” “transport costs,” “public health,” and “environmental, Climate Change, and social impact” of these fuels. So, can we speak of “peak biomass?” And are we there yet? I think the answer is yes and no. Yes, Continue reading