News

It’s the end of the road for Bosch and Siemens’ plant oil cookstove.

FINANCIAL TIMES:  “The UN estimates that (Somalia’s) al-Shabaab pocketed more than $25m from charcoal in 2011, fueling its operations and undermining efforts to promote stability in a fragile country suffering from terrorism, piracy and more than 20 years of clan warfare.”

A joint Zambian and Swedish venture is looking to curb deforestation by introducing a new type of cookstove, which runs solely on clean fuel, into Zambian households.

The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), is promoting bamboo charcoal technologies in Ghana, which have the potential to jump-start the country’s bio-energy sector and generate and sustain the charcoal business.

Many poor people in the southernmost province of Ca Mau burn forests to obtain charcoal, running the gauntlet of years in jail and even shooting by rangers. “We know we are burning our own homes, but what else can we do to feed ourselves?”

“The charcoal trade, referred to as “black gold” by Kampala traders, has become more profitable than the forests where trees are being indiscriminately cut down for charcoal-burning.”

“Reducing emissions from diesel engines and domestic wood and coal fires is a no-brainer, as there are tandem health and climate benefits,” says Professor Piers Forster of the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment.

Study indicates that the number of victims from the “silent killer in the kitchen” is double that of previous estimates. Indoor air pollution kills more than diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV… combined.