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 a roundup of stories that caught our attention on the Twitterverse over the week-end.
UN researchers say its 15-year anti-poverty plan fails to address jobs, income equality. – “The United Nations is ignoring the critical role of jobs and income equality in its 15-year strategy to fight world poverty and hunger — to the detriment of developing nations, the world body’s own researchers said in a surprising critique released Friday.” The report’s authors rightly point out that rural people giving up agricultural work for low-wage urban jobs does not indicate upward economic development. We still think the absence of energy poverty alleviation as a key strategy is a glaring omission.
New UN website to track climate aid & build trust. Cash is “golden key” to Cancun climate talks. – A website launched on Friday will help track whether rich countries are keeping a pledge to come up with $30 billion in climate aid for the poor, seen by the U.N. as a “golden key” to progress in talks on global warming. The United Nations-backed site (www.faststartfinance.org) so far lists cash promises by 6 European donors including Germany and Britain and 27 recipients from Bangladesh to the Marshall Islands. Many of the developing nations have blank entries on the amount of aid received.
Atlas of the Biosphere: Mapping the Biosphere – We thought this was a neat resource. We hope you like it, too.: The Atlas of the Biosphere was created as a Masters Thesis project of the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE). The project goal was to provide information about the environment and human interactions with the environment.
Economist article about energy in the developing world : A growing number of initiatives are promoting bottom-up ways to deliver energy to the world’s poor – This is an interesting article and it’s especially good on showcasing a couple of social enterprises that are actually succeeding in bringing energy efficiency to the bottom of the pyramid. Sadly, where the article falls short is in its overview of technological solutions. The authors chose to focus on things like LEDs and PVs and made no mention of energy efficient stoves, improved kilns, and sustainable, alternative biomass fuels.
For those of you thinking about developing credits for sale on the carbon market, this serialized explanation of how the market works should come in handy: Making a market for pollution: First in a three-part series on carbon trading.
At The Charcoal Project we like to consider thought-provoking questions. This one comes to us via Vuthisa in South Africa which asks: ” Is it better to burn wood or charcoal?” Here’s part of their answer: In China, India and Sub Saharan Africa, up to 80% of urban households use biomass fuels for cooking. Wood fuel usage is the most predominant with charcoal a close second. What is their respective influence on global warming? Sorry, but this post will not attempt to discuss this complex issue, because the reality is that for most people struggling with energy security, saving the environment is not exactly high on their list. The following paragraphs will instead focus briefly on the burning characteristics of wood and charcoal, because in many cases availability and affordability of the fuel type will dictate which fuel type is being used.
Reserves of Forest Carbon May Be Significantly Overestimated, Study Says – Turns out that the amount of carbon stored in the world’s tropical forests varies widely according to underlying geology and other factors.
Finally, The X-Prize Foundation and the Government of India team up to find the best cookstove EVAH! In response to our query about the rules and the purse prize, we received the following response. We’ll keep you posted!
Rgds,
Kim & Nina
English 
French 