The Charcoal Project

Policy

World’s Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

by Jon R. Luoma for Yale360

Two billion people worldwide do their cooking on open fires, producing sooty pollution that shortens millions of lives and exacerbates global warming. If widely adopted, a new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could go a long way toward alleviating this problem.

With a single, concerted initiative, says Lakshman Guruswami, the world could save millions of people in poor nations from respiratory ailments and early death, while dealing a big blow to global warming — and all at a surprisingly small cost.

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Time for action on black carbon, US Congress warned

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

[USAID/IAP Updates] Black carbon soot, produced from incomplete combustion of diesel fuel and biomass, is one of the largest contributors to climate change apart from CO2 and should be a prime target of policymakers according to scientists and experts testifying at a hearing Tuesday of the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

“Black carbon packs a powerful punch when it comes to climate change, absorbing solar radiation while in the atmosphere and also darkening the surfaces of snow and ice, contributing to increased melting in vulnerable regions such as the Arctic and Himalayas,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD). “The good news is that it only stays in the atmosphere for up to a few weeks, making it an ideal target for achieving fast cooling through aggressive mitigation measures.”


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World needs a Nick Stern report on energy poverty

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

OPINION

How much does energy poverty cost?

How much is lost in productivity by societies dependent on traditional biomass fuel?

What is the monetary value of global deforestation for biomass fuel use?

What is the cost (in CO2-equivalent) of the volumes of black carbon being pumped into the atmosphere?

What percentage of national budgets go to treat illnesses attributable to indoor air pollution from inefficient biomass combustion?

How much potential income is lost from the estimated 1,500,000 people who die annually as a consequence of exposure to indoor air pollution?

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Women Key to Reduce Impact of Climate Change in Nigeria

Posted on by ninulya

Gifted with huge reserves of oil and gas, Nigeria is today one of the fastest growing economies in the world.  But despite its natural wealth, the country is struggling to provide basic energy for its own citizens, two-thirds of whom currently live on less than a dollar a day.

In this story, a non-profit makes the case that, sometimes, a more “modern” fuel can play an important role in helping meet a country’s specific energy development goals.

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Nicaragua: Of Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Crocodiles, and Energy Poverty

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

In October 1998 I walked out of a Costa Rican jungle after narrowly escaping a disastrous film shoot with crocodiles.

The near fiasco had nothing to do with filming the animals up close in their natural habitat. Instead, what almost sunk the project was the relentless pounding of a tropical rain that soaked everything and everyone.

Back in our hotel in San Jose we discovered the cause of the rain was a major hurricane that had slowly swept across the Central American isthmus, causing massive death and destruction in Guatemala, Honduras, and in my home country, Nicaragua. Nearly 11,000 people were killed. The flooding caused extreme damage, estimated at over $5 billion (1998 USD, $6.5 billion 2008 USD).

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