Supporter: Dory McIntosh

Cooking is one of the most basic human activities. But, for two billion women around the world, cooking the daily meal over an open fire is all too often associated with choking smoke, long journeys for fuel collection and a plethora of personal hazards: high numbers of women report being threatened, assaulted or raped while collecting wood.

A traditional "three stone fire" is both inefficient and unhealthy: heat escapes out from all sides, which consumes more wood, and more smoke pours out. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Open fires are also really inefficient. Households tend to use, on average, between 2-10 kilograms (4-22 pounds)of wood a day. Multiplied by the needs of whole communities and combined with rising populations, it is easy to see how cooking on open fires can lead to wide-scale deforestation. In addition, the soot particles from open fires — so-called “black carbon” — are also one of the major culprits in global warming.

Providing clean cooking stoves is a win/win solution. A fuel-efficient stove helps to address energy poverty by reducing household fuel wood requirements by up to 50 percent. Women who were previously spending precious hours collecting wood have time for other activities, including income generation. Households that were previously purchasing wood can save money and have greater resources for spending on other vital areas such as education and food. The reduced exposure to smoke leads to improved health for women and children, while the threat to forests around the world is lessened.

Promoting the uptake of fuel efficient stoves is a cornerstone on Mercy Corps’ energy poverty strategy and great work is being done across the globe.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of people who fled ongoing war ended up in camps close to Virunga National Park. In the especially challenging circumstances of conflict and displacement, Mercy Corps has trained hundreds of internally-displaced people (IDPs) to build simple mud stoves which replace the traditional “three stone fires.” This has dramatically reduced the number of attacks on women as they forage for wood in Virunga National Park and helped to reduce the levels of deforestation in this World Heritage site. Protecting this fragile environment is particularly important, given that it is home to the last vestiges of the mountain gorillas.

Zaina Byamungu, displaced by conflict in Congo, has been trained by Mercy Corps on how to build, maintain and use fuel-efficient stoves. With these new skills, she can start their own businesses to make and sell the fuel-efficient stoves. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

An innovative aspect of this programme is that the reduced wood use, and scale of the project, means that it is contributing to significant reductions in CO2 emissions. This has made the project eligible for the sale of carbon credits. Mercy Corps is working with a carbon retailer for the sale of these credits, and has put specific mechanisms in place to ensure that emissions reductions are monitored properly.

In Myanmar, hundreds of thousands lost their lives and livelihoods, and delicate regional eco-systems were devastated in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Mercy Corps is now renewing hope and creating new opportunities through a market-led approach to energy poverty. Potters are being trained in simple mud stove construction and will also be helped with access to markets. The creation of sustainable fuel supplies is being forged through the replanting of rapidly-growing fuelwood trees and mangroves.

From Haiti to Honduras and from Guatemala to Georgia, there is movement in the countries that we are working in to install cleaner, safer, cheaper and more efficient cooking technologies that transform lives while protecting the environment. The predicted rise in fuel prices, together with the urgent need to improve the lives of those who are already amongst the most vulnerable to the shocks of climate change, means that this will continue to be a high focus over the years to come.

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COP15 (UN Climate Change Conference) has had its peaks and troughs. The troughs have related to both the process and the logistics — the temporary withdrawal of the support of African nations sent almost palpable frissons of panic around the negotiating room. For a while, it seemed that there really could be a possibility that we would all go home with no agreement in place. Luckily, all were back at the negotiating table a few hours later, but it felt like a close call.

Al Gore speaks at a COP 15 side event entitled "Greenland Ice Sheet - Melting Snow and Ice: Calls for Action." Photo: WIDJA (flickr)

The logistical troughs were more immediate, but nonetheless uncomfortable. The atrocious administrative failures left many out in the cold today — literally. Hundreds waited up to ten hours in freezing temperatures, like cattle behind the barriers, to gain access to the Bella Center. Many had to leave without ever gaining access — despite having prior registration for the event.

However, for those who made it through the barriers, there were some real highlights with Al Gore’s presentation being one of those — despite the desperate message that he and his fellow panellists were portraying. Both Al Gore and the scientists who preceded him stressed that the effects of glacier and ice melt are going to far exceed the earlier UNFCCC predictions. Not only are the Greenland ice cap and Western Antarctica melting far faster than was previously thought, but the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a rate that is placing the lives of more than a billon people in jeopardy. Sea level rises of around one meter are predicted by the end of the century, which would displace an estimated 100 million people from their homes and livelihoods. To put this in context, we were told that the negotiators were working within the parameters of a 4 degree rise in temperature by the end of the century.

For most countries this is a disastrous scenario, but for developing countries it is the stuff of nightmares. It is a nightmare that has millions of people fleeing their homes — either because of conflict or because of diminishing resources.

For Mercy Corps these are urgent times, but our response has to be measured and appropriate. The very urgency of the situation makes it all the more important that funding and other resources are allocated where they can have the highest impact and most immediate effect.

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Nowadays you get wrist bands for everything. From Live-Aid to Breast Cancer, we pin our allegiances on ourselves like medals to demonstrate that we care, that we have hope or just to show that we are good citizens. The COP15 (UN Climate Change Conference) glowing yellowy-green wrist band — which declares “Yes We Can” — perhaps stands for all of these: that we care about our world, that we have faith that humanity can change its path and that we are prepared to do our bit.

Today was Forest Day. You could even say it was a REDD letter day since most conversations seemed to hinge on whether the new agreements would include REDD — Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. With 18 percent of our global emissions resulting from deforestation, tackling this low-hanging fruit has always been important but it has become even more so in recent years.

Photo: iycnpictures (flickr)

Now we know that we need to reduce our emissions by 17 gigatons if we are to have any chance of keeping to the target of 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Providing incentives for people NOT to cut down their forests would mean that we could achieve one third of this ambitious target. Tackling the hoary issue of forests therefore seems to be too important not to do, but it is beset with problems — problems of land tenure, governance and ensuring that forest users, rather than the large multi-national corporations, reap the benefits.

The message from the meetings here in Copenhagen was an acknowledgement that the problems will be significant, but that we will have to solve them along the way since we don’t have time to wait while we work out the best ways forward. Paying for forest conservation will also not come cheaply — if we are serious about it, then US $30 billion will be needed on an annual basis.

These are not, obviously, small sums. But they are achievable. After all, we were reminded by one speaker that they represent similar sums to the annual bonuses set aside by some of the major banks. Whatever does get released. it is really important that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) strive to ensure that the projects that do go ahead are working in the interest of the poorest members of the community.

Mercy Corps in interested in REDD as a mechanism that can help forest-based and dependent communities access funds that rightfully should belong to them, supporting establishment and protection of sustainable livelihoods. The challenge is going to be in making sure the flows are not diverted along the way, leaving the marginalised to the benefits of others higher up the food chain.

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