Carbon Finance for Clean Cooking-time to grasp the opportunity.

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• The main driver is long term economic sustainability and forest conservation. Clean cooking is essential if the MDGs are to be achieved.
  
• Results from case studies show a rule of thumb savings of 1-1.5 tons of CO2 per stove per year.
  
• 90% of staple food needs to be cooked for long periods of time and the majority of the poor cook using unsustainable and inefficient methods.
  
• The majority of cookstove manufacturers are small to medium enterprise's lacking capital to rapidly industrialize production rates to match market demand. Capital from carbon credits would greatly enhance output and therefore greatly reduce national GHG emissions.
  
• As an urban and rural household energy source, charcoal and firewood burned in highly efficient cookstoves not only lower the risk of smoke related diseases, they enhance food security, environmental custodianship, and energy self reliance while reducing the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
  
• The strongest facet of this application of carbon finance is that the finance is paid after the delivery of measured output (i.e. company invoices for units of cookstoves sold). The outputs are rewarded rather than the inputs financed.
  
• The target stoves are the KCJs(Kenya Ceramic Jiko) invented by Dr. Maxwell Kinyanjui, in accordance to GTZ experiences the stoves are efficient (min. 40% fuel saving), clean burning, adapted to local needs and habits and are easy to use for the cook to use.
  
• Typical cost per stove is 7€ at national supermarkets, compared to 30-40€ for solar or LPG stoves.
  
• Switching to improved cookstoves has been proven to cut the mortality rate of lower respiratory illnesses and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by an estimated 83%.
  
• For the poorest communities, despite the low cost of clean cooking, the initial capital outlay is the major barrier. Carbon finance is potentially a way of overcoming such a barrier. With a typical saving of one ton per year of CO2 equivalent (TCO2e), an efficient cookstove could earn upwards of 30€ assuming a 3 year life.
  
• This level of funding is completely sufficient to supply cookstoves to the poorest communities relying most heavily on woodfuels.
  

I would like to extend my thanks to Boiling Point issue No. 54, published by the Household Energy Network(HEDON). All references can be obtained online at their website; www.hedon.onfo/Boiling Point