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Jean Kim Chaix

Kim Chaix is the Founding Director of The Charcoal Project and is also Director of Strategic Impact for Rainforest Foundation USA.

Once-Lowly Charcoal Emerges as ‘Major Tool’ for Curbing Carbon

From Greenwire/ NYT By Paul Voosen of Greenwire Published: September 7th, 2010 …Inspired by ancient Amazonian soils, researchers have found that buried charcoal resists bacteria’s attempts to break it down. And thanks to its porous geometry, it has a knack for improving land in ways still being revealed. “Once we get serious about climate change, […]

Once-Lowly Charcoal Emerges as ‘Major Tool’ for Curbing Carbon Read More »

The Twitteruniverse roundup: MDG failure, money talks, mapping the biosphere, and delivering energy to the energy-poor

Folks, We’re back from Labor Day, the long weekend that marks the unofficial end of summer and the start of the rest of the business year here in America. Before we launch into a new, fresh round of stories about energy poverty alleviation and energy efficient biomass combustion solutions, we want to share with you

The Twitteruniverse roundup: MDG failure, money talks, mapping the biosphere, and delivering energy to the energy-poor Read More »

Now it gets interesting: Indian Govt & X Prize announced global competition for best clean-burning cookstove!

X PRIZE, Govt. of India, and the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) Announce Partnership to Create Global Competition to Develop Clean-Burning Cookstove.

Initiative would combat the serious problem of indoor air pollution, which kills more than one million people each year

Now it gets interesting: Indian Govt & X Prize announced global competition for best clean-burning cookstove! Read More »

Can the Gates-ian approach to treating infectious disease work to alleviate energy poverty?

It occurs to us that Mr. Bill Gates’ description above of how the market treats (or not) infectious diseases could easily apply to energy poverty and the 3 billion people who depend on biomass as their primary fuel. For one, the socio-economics of the victims are similar. Second, there is no natural market for clean cookstoves.

So, could a Gates-ian approach to combating infectious disease work for poverty alleviation? Maybe, but there are major, maybe irreconcilable differences, between the two.

Can the Gates-ian approach to treating infectious disease work to alleviate energy poverty? Read More »

TANZANIA: Bank dishes out 1.5bn TzS for training of charcoal producers

Charcoal producers in Kisarawe and Rufiji districts, (Coast Region of Tanzania) have a reason to smile after Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited earmarked more than 1.5bn Tanzanian Shillings (USD 1,002,875 /  €768,746) to Dar es Salaam Charcoal Project (DCP) to train charcoal producers on how to cut down deforestation.

TANZANIA: Bank dishes out 1.5bn TzS for training of charcoal producers Read More »

Tanzania: Charcoal-making in five easy pieces

We published last month an interview with Dennis Tessier of ARTI-TZ, a Tanzania-based non-profit working to promote the manufacturing and marketing of briquettes made from the char produced in improved charcoal kilns. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Tanzania’s forests are disappearing at a whopping rate of 4,200 square kilometers (1,620

Tanzania: Charcoal-making in five easy pieces Read More »

Madagascar: Drought forces farmers into charcoal devastation

(WWF) Toliara, Madagascar — Two years of drought and late arrival of the rainy season in south western Madagascar have forced hundreds of farmers into charcoal producing which is devastating forests, according to WWF field staff at Tollara.

“Charcoal production in the South of Madagascar is particularly unsustainable as people cut the natural spiny forest, a unique ecosystem which exists nowhere else” says Bernardin Rasolonandrasana, Spiny Forest Eco-regional Leader for WWF in Toliara. “We are horrified to see the amount of charcoal currently coming out of those forests.”

Madagascar: Drought forces farmers into charcoal devastation Read More »

Why the market alone cannot solve the clean cookstove gap

Can it be that the emphasis on finding market-based solutions to energy poverty alleviation and the large-scale deployment of improved cookstoves is just not practical? “Probably,” say a group of researchers investigating the pressures placed on grass-roots NGOs to adopt market-based approaches to solving household energy and health issues in the developing world.

Why the market alone cannot solve the clean cookstove gap Read More »

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