We customarily share with you each Friday a compilation of interesting articles, opinions, letters, and such material that may have piled up on our desk during the week. We call it our Lost Kitten section.
— The Editors
1. The big news remains last week’s launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. With the spotlight trained full blast on the issue for the first time ever, commentators have had much fodder to work with. Here are just three examples of what they’re saying: What Hillary’s Cookstoves Need to Succeed, Can Sustainable Cookstoves Help Women & Girls?, and Cooking with Mo-Gas
2. We love two science papers (and please don’t make that face, these are actually very accessible) by, among others, the World Bank’s new Clean Energy Czar (our title), Daniel M. Kammen. What we really liked about these paper was the deep thought given to the “peak charcoal” situation facing Sub-Saharan Africa. We feel that after the launch last week of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, solid biomass fuels should be the next big thing on the energy-for-development agenda.
The papers in question are: Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Biomass and Petroleum Energy Futures in Africa, from Science (April 2005). Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Household Energy Technology in Kenya, American Chemical Society (March 2003)
3. International Energy Agency Presents Early WEO Energy Poverty Analysis at UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit in New York . The counterpoint to the article is made by Roger Pielke, Jr., a well-established climate change scientist and commentator.
4. This came to us from our good friends over at IAP Updates: Beyond fuelwood savings: Valuing the economic benefits of introducing improved biomass cookstoves in the Purépecha region of Mexico. (If anyone has the link to the complete article, please let us know so we can update the post’s hyperlink.)
5. Four important news stories:
A. Ugandan forest being stripped for fuel (Mongabay.com) — Researchers believe that forest degradation for charcoal and firewood has put heavy pressure on this ecosystem. The Kasagala forest reserve, according to the authors, was “previously set aside to provide ecosystem services and offer catchment protection to Lake Kyoga, an inland water body that is gradually drying up due to loss of surrounding vegetation cover,” adding that “this forest is of immense ecological value” and is vital for local populations as Lake Kyoga provides water to over 100,000 people.
B. Electricity price hikes set to fuel Zambia deforestation (Alert.net) — More of Zambia’s forests are likely to be cut down for charcoal after the country’s energy watchdog allowed national energy company Zesco to hike electricity prices for domestic consumers by around 40 percent in August.
C. Government asked to stop commercial vehicles from using LPG – Residents (Ghana News Agency) — Some residents of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis in the Western Region, have appealed to the Government to stop commercial vehicles from using Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to power their engines. They said if that was done, it would ensure massive usage of the product for domestic purposes. The residents expressed worry about the nationwide shortage of the LPG and noted that the situation had arisen because most taxi cabs have converted their vehicles from petrol to LPG.
6. A sobering analysis of this year’s freaky weather patterns and what they mean for the future, by reknown Climate Change scientist, Jim Hansen.
7. And last but not least, a report from The Guardian on a recent environment conference held in Lyon, France. The conclusion? Obsession with economic growth and the greed of financial speculators are destroying efforts to conserve the world’s diminishing resources.
Enjoy the weekend!
Kim & Nina
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