41
Founded in 2011, BURN was created to save for- ests by revolutionizing the clean cooking sector. While traditional, inefficient cooking appliances can bankrupt families, damage their health and destroy forests, BURN stoves can save families’ money on fuel, limit indoor air pollution and protect forests. BURN is a carbon project developer that covers the full carbon value chain from project design and in-house monitoring to credit issuance. Headquar- tered in Kenya and with direct operations in 10 Afri- can countries, BURN employs 3,500 people across Africa, of which 50 percent are female. The com- pany has made and distributed nearly five million clean cooking appliances, transforming the lives of over 25 million people and preventing over 21 mil- lion tons of CO 2 from entering the atmosphere. “We would like to make the case that high-quality biomass stoves make a meaningful difference. Our charcoal stove ‘Jikokoa’ has been known to be the best charcoal cookstove for families with unique at- tributes which include durability of over 5+ years and up to 62 percent savings on charcoal. An in- dependent study found that one stove generates US$1,000 in benefits for society. For wood, we are at 51 percent thermal efficiency and we are piloting digital monitoring for biomass stoves. A lot of inno- vation is happening. There is space for more R&D for a good biomass stove.” - BURN BOX 7: THE ROLE OF IMPROVED COOKSTOVES (BURN CASE STUDY)
amounts in research and development to find the optimal combination of performance and cost. 89
Some studies have cast doubts on the health benefits of improved cookstoves. The expected benefits often assume levels of emission reductions that are achieved only in labo- ratory conditions by expert users. In normal use, the reduc- tions may not be enough to make a significant difference to health outcomes. 90 This has led to some disillusion- ment among financiers and a shift of focus from stove de- sign towards the fuels they use. However, proponents of improved cookstoves point out that measurement prob- lems make it difficult to draw clear conclusions. In real- world conditions, with high levels of ambient air pollution from road traffic and other people’s cookstoves, it is hard to capture the health benefits for individual families of moving to cleaner cookstoves. However, incremental benefits may still be achieved. Overall, however, it is widely accepted that improved cook- stoves offer an interim or transitional step towards clean(er) cooking, delivering meaningful, short-term benefits in areas where fully clean cooking options are still many years away. In particular, improved cookstoves can lead to significant re- ductions (20-75 percent) in the amount of biomass used for each cooking task, helping to combat deforestation. Advo- cates also argue that focusing solely on long-term outcomes would leave some of the poorest households without access. In its modelling, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) calculates that roughly 25 million improved cook- stoves will have to be deployed in rural areas every year to reach universal access by 2030. 91
85 International Energy Agency (2023) A Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All, World Energy Outlook Special Report, https://www.iea.org/reports/a-vision-for- clean-cooking-access-for-all 86 International Energy Agency (2023) A Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All, World Energy Outlook Special Report, https://www.iea.org/reports/a-vision-for- clean-cooking-access-for-all 87 ESMAP (2015) The state of the global clean and improved cooking sector, https://www.esmap.org/sites/esmap.org/files/DocumentLibrary/ESMAP_State_ of_Globa_Clean_Improved_Cooking_sector_Optimized.pdf 88 ESMAP (2015) The state of the global clean and improved cooking sector, https://www.esmap.org/sites/esmap.org/files/DocumentLibrary/ESMAP_State_ of_Globa_Clean_Improved_Cooking_sector_Optimized.pdf
89 Clean Cooking Alliance, link; Climate and Clean Air Coalition, https://www. ccacoalition.org/partners/clean-cooking-alliance#:~:text=Established%20in%20 2010%2C%20the%20Alliance,consumers%20save%20time%20and%20money 90 Phillip, E et al. (2023) Improved cookstoves to reduce household air pollution exposure in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review of intervention studies. PLoS ONE, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284908 91 International Energy Agency (2023) A Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All, World Energy Outlook Special Report, https://www.iea.org/reports/a-vision-for- clean-cooking-access-for-all
3. CLEAN COOKING SOLUTIONS
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