Spotlight on SNV's Improved Cookstove Programme in Nepal

The Ecosystem Marketplace recently launched a series on cook stove projects built around carbon financing. A few weeks ago, the initiative interviewed SNV’s Global Coordinator for Improved Cook stoves Guy Dekelver on the Nepalese government’s strategy to ensure clean cooking for all by 2017. This is an extract from the original article which can be found here.

"Building Carbon Markets From Soot"

By Kelley Hamrick

There are plenty of reasons for not pursuing a clean cook stoves program in Nepal: political uncertainty, lengthy timeframes, and the inaccessibility of remote villages in the far western part of the country. But with smoke-induced illnesses killing thousands of people annually as of early 2013, then-Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai announced a goal of clean cooking for all by 2017. The government's renewable energy body, the Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC), had already disseminated 650,000 improved cook stoves, but it lacked the resources – both financial and institutional – to scale up and reach out to the far reaches of the country.

With the help of the Nepal branch of Dutch development organization SNV, 34,000 stoves have been distributed in the past two years – more than the total marketed in the 12 years preceding its intervention. They did so by helping AEPC to build a market rather than just subsidize distribution.

As in many countries, strong government intervention had left little room for private investment in the cook stoves sector, says Guy Dekelver, SNV's Renewable Energy Sector Leader. Read the full article.

Source: The Ecosystem Marketplace