In many countries around the world, burning non-renewable materials is the most common source for cooking. Often, the stoves used to burn these materials are not efficient enough to make the best use of the fuel that is available, leading to high levels of unsustainable deforestation.
Burning larger amounts than is essential produces unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions, accelerating climate change. Not only are these gasses bad for the planet, they’re also detrimental to the health of the people using them, increasing air pollution within the home which ultimately compromises respiratory health.
In Kenya, 9 million people rely on unsustainable resources for cooking. Distributing cleaner cookstoves can bring lots of benefits to both the people and the environment. By reducing the amount of wood and charcoal that is burned by using these more efficient stoves, the volume of greenhouse gas emissions produced is reduced, and less time and energy needs to be spent collecting fuel – a job which often falls to women and children to carry out.
The Project
This project distributes fuel efficient cookstoves to communities around Kenya. These stoves reduce charcoal consumption by 64%, helping to ease the impact on local forests, and saving local families money. The stoves also reduce indoor air pollution by 65%, generating health benefits for the families who rely on them.
Close to 400,000 cookstoves will be distributed, avoiding 4.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, and reducing demand for wood fuel by 2.4 million tonnes. The manufacturing and distribution of the stoves all takes place locally in a solar-powered facility, which provides over 1,000 jobs for local people.
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