From Copenhagen to cooking – It’s Time For Climate Justice!
. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to demand that Developed countries start taking more responsibility for the planet. There have been amazing campaigns running across the globe from the streets of London to little villages in India. TCK, TCK, TCK – TIME FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Negotiations are extremely heated at the moment. Today’s Guardian is running an article stating that, “Developed nations are trying to water down their emission commitments – no wonder the rest of the world is angry.”
Yes indeed, the developed world in particular has to reduce its carbon emissions. We are all feeling the adverse effects of becoming a society that is entirely dependent upon manufactured goods. Now more than ever, each one of us has to pay attention to our carbon footprints – especially those of us who have the luxury to sit in front of TV screens, love our coca cola or can’t do without our cars. We are all responsible.
Celebrities and global leaders have put their signature behind various campaigns for climate justice. African leaders are taking strong stands and we stand firmly by their side on this one:
So from the big wigs to the little guys on the ground, everyone does have something to say and hopefully we are all putting our words into action. Not so long ago, we blogged about how we at Camps International are doing our bit do reduce our carbon footprints and since then there has been so much more development. Our new partnership with Co2balance has swung into action on the ground in Kenya where we are building hundreds of energy efficient stoves for less fortunate homesteads who are dependent upon wood or charcoal to cook their meals.
As mentioned before, these, “stoves reduce firewood consumption by half and save in the region of 3.05 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, 15.25 tonnes over the 5 year life span, in comparison to traditional cooking methods. In addition to the saving in greenhouse gas emissions, the reduced need for firewood and the burning of rubbish leads to a corresponding reduction in the amount of time spent collecting cooking fuel. The recipients of the energy efficient technology also gain considerable co-benefits such as reduced costs and a considerably improved environment from a health and safety perspective.”
For now it’s as simple as that and if all goes to plan we could be building thousands of stoves along the South Coast of Kenya and around the Tsavo ecosystem. Over the last week, I have been up and down in Muhaka almost everyday and there is such a buzz amongst the villagers for the stoves! Everyone wants one!! And our project officers can’t keep up with the demand. Eustace, Sampuli and Yayha are leading a team of stove builders and we are targeting 200 stoves by the end of this year and another 300 in the first 2 months of 2010!! So for those of you that will be coming in January, prepare yourselves for a lot of stove building…





























February 18th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
[...] currently very very smoky inside but not for long as our energy efficient partners at CO2balance have confirmed that they will support the construction of an institutional stove and we should get that in place very soon. Our [...]
April 20th, 2010 at 11:17 am
[...] you that have been following our Project Diary, you will remember that late last year we launched a pilot project to build energy efficient household stoves for the local community in Muhaka in partnership with a company called CO2balance. Some of our volunteers have been helping build the [...]