School of Geography and the Environment

Cooking and Carbon Expert Workshop - Generating carbon credits from cooking

November 2005, University of Oxford

Meeting Summary

An estimated 2.4 billion people rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, mostly combusted using inefficient and dirty cooking devices. These are a major contributor to respiratory health problems, particularly for women and children, resulting in 1.6 million premature deaths each year (WHO). The IEA's World Energy Outlook 2004 reports that in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals, around 600-700 extra million people will need to gain access to improved cooking facilities by 2015.

The main driver for cooking programmes has to date been health. However, as most improved cooking stoves and alternative fuels significantly reduce emissions (estimated at an equivalent of around 1-2 tonnes or more of CO 2 per year), the potential for carbon funding to transform the sector is significant. Thus this is an area where the goals of development and climate mitigation match. Improved cooking stoves could be bundled into significant carbon trading projects, if key barriers can be overcome. 30 experts from the fields of carbon, improved cooking and health met at a workshop facilitated by the ECI, University of Oxford , to discuss how carbon finance could be used to make a step change in the improved cooking market. The workshop included discussions on: technical issues - what is the best stove design, and how do we measure GHG emissions; institutional issues including CDM rules; and experience to date with achieving widespread stove dissemination and how best to utilise carbon finance.

Technical Questions

Emissions from cooking stoves include some of the gases in the Kyoto basket (CO 2 , CH 4 & N 2 O) as well as other greenhouse gases that are not included (CO, NMVOCs, NOx), and aerosols. The design of improved stoves must ensure CO 2 and non-CO 2 gases and species are reduced. Key to this is a better understanding of how to improve the combustion characteristics of the stoves, as well as improving heat transfer to the pot. Such technical work needs to result in stoves which are attractive to the user.

As laboratory practice can differ from field performance, monitoring methodologies need to include validation measurements of a statistical sample to verify emissions reductions in a credible manner. The Shell Foundation and the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air at the USEPA are currently funding work to develop a monitoring protocol for improved cooking programmes; it is important that this work is adapted to include greenhouse gas emissions, possibly including development of a simple proxy for total GHGs. Stoves on the carbon market.

The market conditions under which stoves are disseminated vary widely; for example some purchase fuel-wood or charcoal while others obtain it freely. Successful stove programmes need to take local conditions into account. However it was generally agreed that the commercial model was the most appropriate for wide scale dissemination of improved cooking technologies and fuels. Carbon finance could be a vital source of revenue to expand stove programmes, although care needs to be taken not to poison existing markets through the use of capital subsidies from this revenue source. A promising approach is likely to be to use of carbon finance to accelerate the growth of existing cooking programmes, by addressing market barriers such as consumer awareness, capacity of entrepreneurs for manufacturing, installation and maintenance etc. Thus carbon finance could be a means to encourage market transformation in the cooking sector.

Going Forward

The prospect of possible changes to the CDM rules means that non-sustainable biomass may not be able to be used as a baseline. In the view of the Workshop, this represents a major missed opportunity. Attendees call on the Executive Board to reconsider its decision. The voluntary market for carbon offsets is expanding. It is essential that the work currently being undertaken to formalise this market (by the Climate Group and the Gold Standard) recognises the potential for carbon funds bring a new source of funds to this crucial development need.

Contact

This workshop was organised by Phil Mann, Programme Leader, Energy in Developing Countries.