The Charcoal Project

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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NEWS: Congo’s poor need incentives to save giant forests

* Experts in Congo for talks on saving big three forests * Poor countries need incentives to save forest By Jonny Hogg GEMENA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 31 (Reuters) “Environmental experts from 35 countries were meeting in the Congo Republic, DRC’s smaller neighbour, on Tuesday for a week-long summit seeking ways to protect the world’s three largest rainforests — the Amazon in South America, the Congo in Central Africa and the Borneo-Mekong in Indonesia. The outcome of the summit could play a role in the preservation of some 80 percent of the world’s remaining tropical forest, seen by Continue reading

Of Pretty Women, the cleanness of clean cookstoves, and the sysiphian pursuit of financial promises

When it comes to “clean cookstoves,” to paraphrase a former US president, “it depends what your definition of the word “clean” is…

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Providing reliable, clean energy to 3 billion people will not break the bank or the environment.

“Delivering efficient, clean energy to those who lack electricity is not as daunting as it sounds.” — Prof. Daniel M. Kammen, The World Bank Whether it was the topic at hand, or the possibility of catching a bite to eat, it was standing-room-only at a lunch-time panel last Monday at the UNDP offices in New York. On the agenda was how UN agencies and other development institutions plan to facilitate access to energy by 2030 for the 3 billion people worldwide who still lack electricity and clean cooking solutions. To kickstart this ambitious effort, the UN has declared 2012 the Continue reading