Cookstoves, Climate Change & Health

Climate and Health Co-Benefits: Carbon Finance for Improved Stoves in China

Approximately 80% of households in China rely on solid fuels such as coal for a significant portion of their household energy. This practice results in pollution exposures that are annually responsible for over 380,000 premature deaths and 3,200,000 Disability adjusted Life Years (WHO 2007). The Climate and Health Benefits from Improved Cookstoves utilizes the international carbon financing to promote high performance, cost-effective, stoves that have been developed by Chinese entrepreneurs that were tested by project team members in a 2006-2007 national cook stove competition.

The project focuses on delivering high quality carbon offsets to the voluntary carbon market by utilizing a recently accepted Gold Standard Methodology for valuing carbon offsets from improved cookstoves that were designed in collaboration with UC Berkeley researchers. This will be aided by the development of new monitoring techniques that are currently being developed. These techniques are enabling researchers to conduct rigorous field experiments, surveys, and market analyses to demonstrate the quantifiable health, environmental, economic and social “co-benefits” from large scale dissemination of improved cookstoves in China.

The project is initially focused on replacing unhealthy coal stoves which are currently used throughout the rural areas of China. This research will also help guide the development of future carbon market standards towards valuing rural energy development opportunities with the most cost-effective and attractive co-benefits.

Principal Investigator: Professor Kirk Smith, School of Public Health
Partners: Dow Sustainable Products and Solutions Program (UC Berkeley); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Wuppertal Institute
Field Location: China