And we’re baaack! It’s 2010, where do we start? Pick up with the qualified fiasco that was Copenhagen? Where does that leave REDD and forests? What will happen with the dangling carrot of financing for forest protection in the tropical belt? What are the prospects of a deal in 2010? Will 2010 see expanded energy […]
Hello 2010. Where to now? Read More »
A presentation unveiled at the recent COP15 meeting by the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA, of which we are proud members) might have turned the tides had it received greater attention. Titled Cleaner Cook Stoves for Developing Countries: Improving Health, Reducing Climate Change, the PowerPoint focused on the carbon offset potential and role of
Maybe if Obama, Jiabao, and the others had seen this in Copenhagen… Read More »
Fifteen years ago I was driving out of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to film a segment on family planning practices in rural villages. While looking out the window of our van as we drove past an open landfill I noticed there was not a single scrap of inorganic material to be seen. No bright red or yellow
Culture, stoves, and fuels come together in Bangladesh Read More »
A few weeks ago a story in the Financial Times led with the stove project of Mercy Corps, a relief agency working in camp for Internally Displaced People in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. We wanted to know more so we sent a list of questions to Elisha Moore-Delate. She is the Environment Program
Relief agency “gets it” by putting the right stove in the right hands Read More »
I wonder if the 2006 film Blood Diamond (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly) would have garnered as much attention if the object of discord had been charcoal instead of diamonds. It’s hard to imagine that charcoal – charcoal! – could be the cause of gruesome murders, a thriving black market, sinister cartels, and the source of
Charcoal: The poor man’s blood diamonds Read More »
The December 21st issue of The Newyorker magazine has a fascinating article about one inventor’s quest for the perfect stove for the developing world. In typical Newyorker fashion, the story focuses on some of the quirkier aspects of the inventors of stoves and the trials and tribulations of getting these done and adopted. Still, it’s
New Yorker magazine article on the quest for the perfect stove Read More »
I can’t decide what to make of today’s announcement in Copenhagen heralding a new five-year program by industrialized nations to invest $350m in the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies in developing countries. On the surface this should be a cause of celebration. The big question is how will these funds will be
Is Copenhagen funding a global stove, kiln, and briquettes conversion program? Read More »
A dispatch from Kenya this morning made me wonder if efforts to ban the charcoal trade in various African countries is at all effective. Can it be enforced? Who suffers? Has this strategy yielded results somewhere? I don’t know. What is clear is that the pace of decimation of African forests for charcoal and woodfuel
Can – or should – the charcoal trade be regulated? Read More »
There is an excellent film by South Africa-based photojournalist Jeffrey Barbee that will hopefully get quite a bit of play in Copenhagen. It explores how African forests and woodfuel efficiency can play a big role in reducing CO2 emissions while improving people’s livelihood. We were especially interested to learn through this film about a stoves
Video: Africa’s forest have a lot to offer in Copenhagen Read More »
We have good reasons to believe the age of enlightened energy awaits us around the corner, right? Not so fast. It will be a long while before every thatched or corrugated tin roof on the globe has a photovoltaic array or a wind turbine. In the meantime, the plight of the energy poor – the
A Prius in Every Pot? Read More »
I thought it useful to share some links to ongoing coverage of negotiations in Copenhagen. We are especially interested in green tech and clean fuels for the energy poor, of course, but REDD is also on our mind, so if you have any information you’d like to share, don’t hesitate to submit it! I’d also
The latest from Copenhagen Read More »
In the spirit of the energy reconversion that half the world is about to undergo in the next decade or so, I thought it appropriate to post some of the sobering slides produced by the International Energy Agency which suggest a completely different perspective for the world’s energy poor. The takeaways are that (1) the
A sobering, graphic view of the world’s energy poor in 2030 as seen by the IEA Read More »
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