Category Archives: Carbon Offsets

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Financing the clean cookstove revolution the green way

Posted on: February 22, 2011

Written by: Jean Kim Chaix

Categories: Carbon market, Carbon Offsets, Companies, Funding


Financing the large-scale deployment of clean cookstoves A Q&A with Evan Haigler of Impact Carbon In late September 2010, several dozen men and women from around the world crammed into a small room at the United Nation’s Foundation’s headquarters in midtown New York to discuss how to deliver 100 million cookstoves by 2020 to the homes of the 3 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean safe energy. The challenge had been laid down a few days earlier by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she announced the creation of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a $50 million … Continue reading →

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IPCC to feature role of Black Carbon in next report

Posted on: November 11, 2010

Written by: Jean Kim Chaix

Categories: Black Carbon, Carbon market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Cookstoves, Funding, Policy

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Speaking Tuesday at a briefing on Capitol Hill, EPA officials said that “black carbon” (BC), an important factor in global warming and major by-product of solid biomass fuel and dirty diesel emissions, would figure prominently in a International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report due out next year. BC emissions can also seriously affect the health of residents in households that depend on burning wood, charcoal, animal dung, and agricultural residues for home cooking and heating. Another scientific paper due out early next year is likely to cast much needed light on the role of BC on global warming. The … Continue reading →

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PAPER: Under ideal conditions, burning biomass is GHG neutral.

Posted on: October 13, 2010

Written by: Jean Kim Chaix

Categories: Africa, Black Carbon, Carbon Offsets, Charcoal, Climate Change, Cookstoves, Energy Efficiency, Kilns, Policy, Studies


“If biomass is harvested in a sustainable way so that its long-term stocks are not depleted, and (it is) burned under ideal combustion conditions, it is effectively GHG (Greenhouse Gas) neutral.” from “Greenhouse Gas Implications of Household Energy Technology in Kenya.” American Chemical Society/Environmental Science & Technology. (2003) Authors: Rob Bailis, Majid Ezzati, and Daniel M. Kammen. The statement above would be music to the ears of solid biomass booster the world over were it not for one tiny, almost insignificant word: ideal. The lead-in to the full statement goes: “Under optimal conditions, biomass combustion results almost entirely in the … Continue reading →

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So, you wanna deploy cookstoves to every corner of the world? McKinsey & Co. has one word for you: networks

Posted on: June 30, 2010

Written by: Jean Kim Chaix

Categories: Carbon Offsets, Cookstoves, International Development, Policy, The Charcoal Project


In a meeting this week with the folks from Acumen Fund, we were asked what was holding up the large-scale deployment of improved cookstove worldwide?

The truth is there is no simple answer. Take your pick: low levels of capital investments, tariff barriers, lack of incentive policies, fluctuation price of oil, poor social marketing, instability in the carbon credit market, absence of standards, etc.

Looking for solutions, the folks at McKinsey and Co. think stakeholders would do well to focus on networking and sharing resources.

Listen to the Harvard Business Review and they’ll tell you the US needs to spend more time investing in social entrepreneurs in the developing world and less playing the role of incubator.

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