[Stoves] Radical ideas from Paul and Philip {re: stoves and credits again}

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear All


“Kenya loses 7,000 acres of woodland to cooking;”
I presume the author means annual net loss of tree cover.

So, Kenya is covered in pretty good growing land, What is the government doing to ensure the security of supply of energy to the biomass burning sector? Any national energy policy document has a section in it called “Security of Supply” and is usually filled with text about stores of gasoline and oil products. I believe (without good documentation) that Swaziland was the first country to include biomass for domestic consumption in the Green Paper and White Paper version of their national energy strategy.

7000 acres of woodland is nothing for a country the size and wealth of Kenya. What are they doing about it? Rwanda, a tiny and heavily populated country, manages to grow all their biomass fuel requirements, what’s up with Kenya? It is 22 times the size and has only 3.8 times the population.

Clearly the loss of forest cover for the energy needs of domestic consumers is caused by a policy failure, not a lack of resources or opportunity.

The selling point for the Swaziland policy was that 77% of the population relied on biomass for their energy needs. The original draft had not a single mention of this in terms of ‘doing something’ to ensure that biomass will continue to be available indefinitely.

In British Columbia there is a long standing rule that if you cut a tree for some commercial use you have to plant three more. Thus, while it may look as if they are ‘clear cutting the forest’ in fact they are farming vast areas on a 70 year cycle. The fact that is it longer than a human working cycle is immaterial.

Trees grow very well in Kenya. In the very dry areas Dr St Barbe Baker recommended the planting of peach trees which are not only useful for food, they provide very good quality firewood. It was his opinion that the desert in the NW could be continuously pushed back by planting peach trees on the margin. They are extremely heat resistance and drought resistant too (there is a drought cycle in that region tied to the Hadley Cells and how they evolve cyclically).

As Nikhil points out, if there is no shortage of free fuel, fuel efficiency is not necessarily an issue. They could even make charcoal and ship it to Rwanda or South Sudan.

Regards
Crispin



From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Cookswell Jikos
Sent: 2-Oct-17 04:08
To: ndesai at alum.mit.edu; Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>; ctoroitich at snv.org
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Radical ideas from Paul and Philip {re: stoves and credits again}

Cookstoves in the Kenyan news. An interesting article from Caroline Toroitich (cc'd in above).


Modern stove in the kitchen our saviour
''By CAROLINE TOROITICH

Of the issues informing global geopolitics and commerce, climate change and the dilemma of biofuels have a special place.

But we tend to forget the device we use to cook and heat.

Only 6 per cent of Kenya’s nine million households can afford electric or LPG cookers. The rest depend on biomass-combusting jikos.

These are the common jikos or hearths that mainly use firewood or charcoal and are mostly highly inefficient in combustion and heat preservation.

HOUSEHOLD POLLUTION

Household air pollution, the World Health Organisation says, causes more than 15,000 deaths and an equal number of respiratory health complications yearly in Kenya, with women and children bearing the brunt.

Sadly, we hardly notice this phantom because that has been our lifestyle and the impact may not be immediate yet millions of people suffer silently.

Besides, inefficient stoves are wood guzzlers — meaning with an ever-growing population, depletion of the environment is higher.

Kenya loses 7,000 acres of woodland to cooking; we are not out of the woods yet (literally).

ROBUST POLICIES

Use of environment-friendly improved stoves that use less fuel and have minimal emissions can only be achieved in a streamlined setting with robust policies including strict standardisations and consumer awareness.

That can be achieved by adopting the 2013 Improved Biomass Stoves regulations.

The urgency of innovation and uptake of clean stoves in Kenya cannot be gainsaid in the wake of an imminent environmental Armageddon.

Kenya needs to take regional leadership in this sector. In the 1980s, the country developed the Kenya Ceramic Jiko — since adopted in countries such as Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. But, three decades down the line, we have not improved our technology.

MULTI-BILLION SECTOR

Thirty years in purgatory is a long time in research. Countries that are passionately engaged in research and innovation on stoves are exporting to us.

Cooking is a multibillion-shilling sector that is easily ignored. Yet every day we have to cook and heat.

Were our research and development robust, we would have a vibrant industry exporting stoves, employing our youth and saving the environment and our health.

Luckily, the civil society is leading a charm offensive in ensuring that a new regime of clean improved stoves becomes a reality in Kenya.

STANDARDISATION

Standardisation will help to control entry and production of counterfeits and sub-standard jikos not only inefficient in combustion but deadly. Kenya Bureau of Standards has its work cut out for it.

In all fairness, Kenya has an improved stove standard — KS1814: 2005 — that gives guidelines on safety, efficiency and durability. But it failed to recognise the genie of emission that lurks dangerously in millions of households.

It’s commendable that, last year, the State waived duty on imported jikos. This is good but there is a challenge: The waiver is per consignment, requires the minister’s approval and tax reimbursement is cumbersome.

This frustrates business. Also last year, the government cut import duty on stoves from 25 per cent to 10 per cent under the East Africa Community Common Market Protocol.

EMPOWER ARTISANS

Kenya now needs to go the whole hog and zero-rate stoves.

Importantly, we need to empower our artisans and manufacturers with the skills to produce stoves for domestic use and for export.

With 70 per cent of our energy demands biomass against a wood deficit of 10 million tonnes, set to hit 15 million tonnes by 2030, we are headed for an energy crisis.

We also need more effort towards alternative fuels, which can easily be developed from biomass waste — such as biomass pellets and briquettes.



Cookswell Jikos
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