Jumaa, charcoal retailer, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
We just couldn’t resist preempting Steve Jobs‘ announcement of the next hot Apple gadget with our own launch today, the world’s first:
Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. California
Global Biomass Index
As we indicated before, the index will track the price of biomass and related fuels around the world.
The Charcoal Project Global Biomass Index
The tool is a work in progress and you can expect to see greater functionality with each new version.
Ultimately, however, the index will only succeed if you help us by contributing information from wherever you are.
You can email your data to: index[at]charcoalproject[dot]org
Please make certain you contribute at least the fields in red!
Location: (Province, district, town, city, etc. Multiple locations are encouraged!)
Country:
Date:
Type of biomass: (Please be as descriptive as possible, ie: heavy/light charchoal, briquettes type, wood type, etc.)
Local unit of measure: (kg, sack, pound, coffee can, jug, etc. Please be as descriptive or aproximative as possible as the units will be standardized later.)
Price in local currency: (Is the price wholesale or retail?)
Conversion rate of local currency to Euros & USD: (We can do this on our end if you don’t know. Click here for Google’s handy online converter.)
Information about alternative fuel of choice, if available: (Charcoal vs LPG, or charcoal vs woodfuel, or charcoal vs briquettes, or briquettes vs LPG, or charcoal vs kerosene, you get the idea…)
Unit of measure: (100lbs cylinder of LPG, for example, or one gallon/liter of kerosene, etc.)
Local cost of alternative fuel per unit of measure:
Person or organization submitting and email. (Emails will be kept confidential and will only be used for corroborating information)
As always, we welcome your suggestions as to how we can make this resource more useful to the end user.
A very special thank you to Christina, our Chief Technology Goddess, for making this happen!
And thank you for supporting The Charcoal Project in our effort to build the global network of biomass energy stakeholders.
— The team at The Charcoal Project
This table shows only some of the categories tracked by the index.
A few weeks back, a radio reporter from US-based Public Radio International contacted us to discuss charcoal, woodfuels, and briquettes projects in Haiti.
We are pleased to share with you her story.
“Before the recent earthquake, Haiti was no stranger to natural disasters. In recent years, thousands of people have been killed by floods and landslides. To understand why the toll is so high, one need look no further than the country’s bald mountains. Haiti has lost about 97 % of its forests. And the main culprit is the nation’s most popular cooking fuel: charcoal. Reporter Amy Bracken looks at one effort to provide a tree-saving alternative: briquettes made from trash.”
Read or listen to the complete radio report.
First the FT mentioned it.
We blogged about it in December.
Then CNN’s Anderson Cooper did a piece.
Now it’s the BBC’s turn to take a whack a it, albeit with a twist.
Whatever the case, I always learn something new from this story.
In this case, it’s the alarming statistic that 90 percent of the women who travel to the forest for fuel reported been harassed, raped, or experienced violence while collecting woodfuel.
Addressing today the newly minted Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a series of promising initiatives.
Not surprisingly, the one that really grabbed our attention was the following:
Advancing Sustainable Biomass Energy: The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are inviting interested countries to collaborate on scientific exchanges to advance renewable biomass energy that is sustainable. The initiative aims to generate and share information that can be applied by participating ECPA countries for expanding production and usage of renewable biomass for energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while minimizing impacts on natural resources. USDA will serve as the U.S. technical lead agency and will coordinate U.S. government technical assistance to partners in the region.
ECPA is comprised of voluntary initiatives focused on energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner fossil fuels, infrastructure, and energy poverty.
Further information is available at: www.ECPAmericas.org.
We realize that not every stove and briquette program is viable until some serious “ground-truthing” has occurred.
But who, or what agency, does one turn to to carry out this work? What multi-lateral or development agency is spearheading the coordination of a global effort to ramp up the adoption of green technology and clean fuels for the Bottom Of the Pyramid? Does one have to go knocking on every agency or NGO door for support?
Every week we get several emails from all over the world asking for help in establishing a stove or briquettes program. From Burkina Faso, to Kenya, to Nicaragua, Malawi, and Laos, and it’s frustrating not to be able to help them with concrete steps or information.
If the use of improved stoves and briquettes can significantly reduce the impact on public health, the environment, poverty, and climate change from inefficient biomass combustion, why is it then that it’s taking the development community so long to come up with a coordinated solution? Whatever the case, the energy poor need help and it’s not getting to them.
If you read this post and work for an international development agency, non-profit, or government that is active in addressing this problem, please contact us!
Thank you!!!
Kim & Nina
