Cooking away Climate Change

The Problem
Apart from contributing to deforestation, it is estimated that inefficient stoves are responsible for close to 25% of emissions of black carbon.

Research shows that black carbon could be a significant factor in the climate change currently being experienced. While efforts at reducing climate change is happening acrossboard, natural forest is taking a big hit especially from local population who rely main on it for their daily cooking, threatening ecosystems and biodiversity, and increasing communities' vulnerability to flooding and landslide caused by soil erosion.

The Solution
Promoting a switch to more efficient stoves is an important part of efforts to address the environmental and climate impacts of severe deforestation. By reducing the amount of charcoal households and businesses need, pressure is taken off forest resources.

This is particularly important in developing countries where minimal access to financial aids, empowerments and basic household utilities forces local populations, despite the danger foretold, to clear forest for cooking.

To change this Thrend, UNEP is working with national organisations to ensure that there are adequate, long term investment in natural resource management and clean energy.

In Africa, Nigerian Developmental Association for Renewable Energies is also helping people in the Guinea Savannah Zone of Nigeria to save money by reducing the amount of wood needed for cooking by replacing their traditional fireplaces with efficient stoves.

Recent data shows that demand for forest resources has fallen, conserving valuable biodiversity and ecosystem services, reducing CO2 emissions from wood burning, and leaving trees standing to act as carbon sinks.

What UNEP Did
With support from the governments of Ireland and Norway, UNEP is working with the Haitian Government to identify opportunities for investment in clean energy. This includes more efficient biomass fuelled cooking stoves, which are of interest to many sectors because they provide multiple social, health and environmental benefits. A national strategy for improved stoves is under development, as is a Haiti Improved Stoves Working Group – a low cost forum for coordinating and promoting improved stove initiatives, involving a range of technologies. In Nigeria, in partnership with the Nigerian Developmental Association for Renewable Energies, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is helping inhabitants of the Guinea Savannah Zone replace their traditional fireplaces with efficient stoves. This project is registered under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which projects can earn certified emission reduction credits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Big Picture
In association with UNEP, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is also pushing to have 100 million households switch to clean cooking stoves by 2020. The alliance aims to improve livelihoods and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient stoves. The Nigerian cookstoves project alone is expected to save more than 300,000 tonnes of carbon over its 10-year lifetime, and is likely to earn $3.13 million in saleable certified emissions.

There is huge potential for introducing affordable and efficient stoves in developing countries, matched by the availability of funding for this type of project under the CDM. Efficient wood fuel stoves, built locally, have also created employment and freed up people's time (especially for women), which can now be devoted instead to income-generating activities.

Finally
Climate change is our own WW3, recent natural disasters are preamble to what may come in few years' time, let us get involve in every way we can.

Don Abiodun
(This article is from UNEP.org under the Heading COOKING AWAY CLIMATE CHANGE, rewritten by Don Abiodun Odedeyi)