Equipping 50 percent of households that burn biomass with improved stoves by 2015 would cost about $2 billion upfront but would almost immediately yield $37 billion in fuel savings, leaving a net gain to the world’s energy poor of some $35 billion.
Over a ten year period this would generate an economic return of U$105 billion.
The latest quarterly update from the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (Bulletin 23)is dedicated to harnessing the power of the carbon credit market to support stove projects around the world. Continue reading
Peru could have bought every rural poor two energy efficient stoves in 2007 for the equivalent of what Indoor Air Pollution cost the country. That would be U$321,123,160 in 2007, in case you were wondering.
As we discussed last week, The Charcoal Project is leading a research on a global analysis that would put a price tag on the inefficient domestic combustion of biomass as practiced today in the vast majority of the developing world.
The figure mentioned above comes from the World Bank’s Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) reports published on their website.
We randomly selected the 2007 assessment for Peru.
We’ve been scratching our heads wondering why energy-efficient stoves have not caught on among the world’s 2.4 billion energy poor.
Stove prices are relatively affordable, the advantages seem fairly obvious, and the technology is simple, proven, and effective.
So what’s the hold up?
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.