Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation by Paul Hawken

Author:Paul Hawken [Hawken, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141998923
Google: D1gpEAAAQBAJ
Published: 2021-09-21T11:08:13+00:00

Clean Cookstoves

While all clean cookstoves aim to reduce harmful particulate emissions and increase fuel efficiency, there are many types, each utilizing different technologies and fuel sources. Some cookstoves use wood pellets from wood that would otherwise be discarded, displacing wood harvested from intact forests and reducing forest degradation. A closed-loop system such as a biodigester turns methane from animal waste into fuel for cooking, compounding the reduction of greenhouse gases and bypassing the need for fossil fuels. Other models are powered by solar, electricity, or fossil fuels, including liquefied petroleum gas, or natural gas.

Even when stoves rely on fossil fuels, the reduction in black carbon particulate emissions, as well as the efficiency gains, ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with cooking. Replacing wood with low-emissions fuel sources has the potential to remove approximately 0.4 gigatons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions per year. One study found that replacing traditional stoves with improved forced-draft stoves in a household can achieve a 40 percent reduction in the average concentration of black carbon particles. Another study observed pollutant reductions greater than 90 percent with the use of pellet stoves.

Black carbon particles created by traditional cookstoves influence cloud formation, changing rainfall patterns, which impacts plants, animals, and people. When black carbon particles settle on snow and ice, they increase surface temperatures by absorbing radiation and reducing the reflection of sunlight back into the atmosphere. Black carbon isn’t the only worrisome by-product of traditional cookstoves. The grayish-white smoke produced as a fire cools down contains carbon particles that can absorb as much radiation from sunlight as sooty smoke, and its health effects may be worse. This form of carbon is known to be carcinogenic.

In Haitian households, women spend twice as much time as men on domestic chores, including firewood collection and food preparation. When women and girls collect wood and other fuels for cookstoves, they are at increased risk of gender-based violence. Access to clean cooking solutions reduces the time it takes to cook meals and reduces the lengthy task of wood collection, both of which allow women and girls time to pursue other activities, such as education, earning income, expanding family interests, or simply resting.

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