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More about cook stoves
Traditional open fire cooking requires significant amounts of wood which contributes to land clearing and rapid deforestation. Cookstoves are very effective in reducing the amount of wood required for cooking, thereby reducing the pressure on natural growth and forests.
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Project information
About 90% of the total primary energy consumption in Uganda is generated through biomass: firewood (78.6%), charcoal (5.6%) and crop residues (4.7%). Every year 19,700 people die as a consequence of using 3-stone fires for their daily cooking activities. These traditional stoves have been associated with extremely low efficiency with 93% of the energy generated being lost during cooking. Not only does it result in indoor and outdoor air pollution, but also contributes to regional deforestation and forest degradation – from 1990 and until 2010 more than 39 % of the existing forest disappeared.
Currently, about 90,000 hectares (equals 900 km²) of forest cover are lost annually, which leads to fuel wood scarcity in rural areas and increasing price levels of charcoal and firewood. Only 10% of the population is accessing clean energy for cooking.
The purpose of this project activity is the dissemination of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) in Uganda. The project aims at changing the traditional cooking habits used in up to around 450 schools and institutions, benefiting approximately 340,000 individuals, reducing 31,286 tonnes of annual CO2, and 219,003 tonnes of CO2 during the 7 year crediting period.
The IICS may be of different models and/or different sizes and will consume firewood. The different models of IICS may be manufactured by local and/or international stove manufacturers. As schools and institutions move up in the energy ladder, and fuel briquettes made of agricultural residues become available in Uganda, these IICS could also be used with such fuel briquettes in the future. In the case that a school/institution/IICS will use briquettes made of renewable biomass (agricultural residues and/or firewood from renewable plantations), the PP will ensure that no emission reduction credits will be claimed from the fuel switch from non-renewable to renewable biomass but only from the fuel savings resulting from the introduction of the IICS.
The project partner (Simoshi) is a social enterprise dedicated to improving the livelihoods of children and their families by bringing a cleaner, healthier and environmentally friendly technology via the installation of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to low-income individuals, especially women and children, by changing the traditional cooking practices used in schools in Uganda.
CO2 emissions reduction
An estimate of the project’s annual carbon emission reductions achieved.
| Baseline emissions | 31,286 MT CO2-e |
Project activity emissions Leakage | 0MT CO2-e 0MT CO2-e |
| Overall emissions reduction | 31,286 MT CO2-e |
Sustainable Development Goals
As a Paying.Green® member, your investment not only benefits the environment, but it also supports communities through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The project creates employment and contributes to the economic development of Uganda through the stove construction, maintenance and monitoring activities.
In the regions where the project has been implemented, over USD 80,000 saved by 82 schools on firewood purchases per
The project estimates that to date over 57,400 children have benefitted from significant reductions in indoor and outdoor air pollution
This project results in an average annual reduction in emissions of around 31,286 MT CO2-e. It is also estimated that over 8,036 tons of firewood is saved per year.
Project location
The project boundary of this project includes the whole of Uganda including its 111 districts and the city of Kampala.