Fuel efficient cookstoves in Honduras
Context
In Honduras, 1.1 million families cook with biomass on open stoves, representing around 51% of the total population. The cutting down of trees for fuel for open stoves is one of the contributing factors toward the country having one of the highest rates of deforestation in Latin America.
These rudimentary cookstoves produce several greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, through the combustion of non-renewable biomass. These emissions are damaging to the climate, and also greatly increase levels of household air pollution which causes health conditions in the population – particularly affecting women and children.
Project
This small-scale project, run locally in Honduras by Envirofit, involves the distribution of 300,000 fuel-efficient cookstoves in households across the country.
Because the new cookstoves improve heat transfer efficiency (reducing the amount of wood required to cook a meal), the project reduces the demand for biomass fuel, leading to a reduction in the rate of deforestation connected to wood consumption. The corresponding reduction in use of the original, less efficient stoves yields a reduction in emissions from fuel combustion – improving air quality within the home, and reducing emissions of the harmful gases that contribute to climate change.
The factory which manufactures the stoves is located in Tegucigalpa and employs a 45% female staff, helping to build, deliver and install the cookstoves to homes across the country. The project also provides a support centre to ensure that families receiving the cookstoves are satisfied with them.
This project will generate around 42,000 verified tonnes of emissions reductions annually, saving approximately 5.1 million tonnes of wood over 5 years, and supporting 200 direct jobs.
Verification
This project is verified by the Gold Standard. You can view it on the Gold Standard registry here.
Climate solution #21
Clean cookstoves
Improved clean cookstoves can address the pollution from burning wood or biomass in traditional stoves. Using various technologies, they reduce emissions and protect human health.
Around the world, 3 billion people cook over open fires or on rudimentary stoves. As these burn, often inside homes or in areas with limited ventilation, they release plumes of smoke and soot liable for 4.3 million premature deaths each year. Traditional cooking practices als produce 2 to 5 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
A wide range of “improved” cookstove technologies exists, with a wide range of impacts on emissions. Advanced biomass stoves are the most promising. By forcing gases and smoke from incomplete combustion back into the stove’s flame, some cut emissions by an incredible 95 percent.