Working Paper

Solar Technologies and Forced Draft Cookstoves: Key to Household Contribution towards Low Carbon Development in Kenya

“Lack of access to modern and clean forms of energy in most African countries remains a major challenge in cutting down greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. The critical role energy plays in facilitating social-economic development quests for appropriate frameworks in order to realize adaptation goals. How effective a given framework is designed and implemented marches a proportional effect on sustainable development and for this case in energy. It should start from household level, agri-food industries to multi-production plants. Much attention has been directed to reducing industrial emissions while anthropogenic forcing at household level is neglected. Approximately 70% of Kenyans use biomass as fuel, with 90% in rural areas exclusively using the resource as main cooking fuel. Occasionally, this is combusted using traditional jikos, which use more wood. In efficient cookstoves, not only emit large amounts of particulate matter and carbon monoxide but also contribute to deforestation increasing chances of climate variability and eventually change.”