Smoke-free Stoves For Climate Protection

A smokefree clay stove needs about 50% less wood than an open fire.  This means that women in Nepal have less work collecting wood, deforestation is reduced and, above all, CO₂ is in part avoided.  Efficiency measurements for our stoves based on the  Water Boiling Test made by Department of Mechanical Engineering der Kathmandu University confirm that cooking with smokefree stoves is at least twice as efficient as cooking on an open fire.

The average rural household burns about 2 tons of firewood each year, releasing about 2.45 tons CO₂ in the process. Currently only a fraction of the wood taken from forests in Nepal is replenisched by reforestation. The Framework Convention on Climate Change of the United Nations (UNFCCC) defines recommended targets for environmental protection projects. The portion of non-renewable biomass for Nepal is around 86%.

Altogether that means reduction of CO₂-emission by about 1 ton per year for each open fire cooking place which is replaced by a smokefree stove.