[Stoves] last minute submission to CDM review board

[Grant Ballard-Tremeer]

FYI, HEDON's submission is given below. Many thanks to Mr Lequan and
others on the stoves list for stirring us into action.

Grant

-- 
Grant BALLARD-TREMEER PhD, CEng MIMechE, MEI
Visit Eco on the web at www.ecoharmony.com
402 Southborough Lane, London, Bromley, BR2 8BH, UK
Tel +44-(0)20 84674347
Fax +44-(0)870 137 2360 and +44-(0)70 9236 7695
email grant at ecoharmony.com
Skype: grant-bt

HEDON Household Energy Network www.hedon.info
SPARKNET Knowledge Network www.sparknet.info
TIE-ENERGIA www.energia-africa.org
About me: www.hedon.info/goto.php/User:GrantBallard-Tremeer
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Dear Sir / Madam

We are responding to your call for inputs from the public on
registered SSC type II energy efficiency project activities in the
CDM project pipeline.

Eco is a consulting firm working world-wide on energy efficiency and
renewable energy projects in the context of acute poverty. These
projects include those that address ‘household energy’ and cooking
and climate change through improved energy access for people living
in poverty. Through improved cooking devices (stoves) it is possible
to reduce the amount of wood required for cooking, reduce cooking
times, as well as improve the efficiency of combustion and thus emit
fewer products of incomplete combustion.

We are also co-ordinators of the HEDON Household Energy Network, a
stakeholder group of over 650 organisations and individuals from
developing and developed countries. HEDON also has recently
established a ‘cooking and carbon’ Special Interest Group with 50
members from concerned NGOs and companies working in this sector.

The current CDM methodologies pose significant barriers to projects
which improve the efficiency of cooking devices, or introduce other
technologies such as biogas to households in developing countries.

We believe that the 45 GW ceiling based on the maximum thermal output
of devices is a serious impediment to projects addressing household
cooking in developing countries since they are usually used in a
low-power simmering mode. This ceiling should be increased
significantly or removed to allow projects of a reasonable size to be
developed.

For household projects, we believe that it should be possible to
claim carbon credits from reducing fuel-wood consumption of
non-renewable sources of biomass, thus reducing rates of
deforestation. We also believe that net increases of carbon pools
compared to what would occur in the absence of the project activity
should be taken into account in the calculation of emission
reductions.

Eco recently developed a project on improved biomass stoves used in
institutions and small businesses in Kenya for the Global
Environmental Facility (approved by the GEF in March 2006). This
project demonstrates the cost effective reduction of carbon
emissions, which could be achieved through improved energy efficiency
of well-designed stoves (about 2.5 USD per tonne of CO2eq reduced).
If the emission reductions from the displacement of
non-renewably-harvested biomass were not counted this project would
not be cost effective, even though this project does include an
afforestation component.

Household energy projects could bring improved energy services to
millions of people in the poorest countries in the world and at the
same time reduce CO2 emissions. Relying on traditional biomass energy
cookstoves poses tremendous problems, mainly for women and children.
Traditional stoves vent smoke directly into the home, killing an
estimated one million children every year, according to the WHO.
Millions also spend hours each day collecting wood-fuel, leaving
little time for other activities such as education. This wood
collection contributes to severe localised deforestation in many
cases. The benefits of improved cooking stoves relate directly to the
Millennium Development Goals, as highlighted by the recent review. At
the same time, inefficient stoves are generating substantial emissions
of greenhouse gases. Research at UCA Berkeley has shown that switching
to an improved, efficient stove can save up to 2 tonnes of CO2 per
stove per year.


Grant Ballard-Tremeer
Director, Eco Ltd
Co-ordinator HEDON Household Energy Network (www.hedon.info)