Climate Curve

Primary Project Category:

Project Summary / Description:

Nigeria is a developing country with more than half of the population living on less than $1 per day. Burning of biomass is the predominant method for generating cooking energy. Switching Nigeria‚ households from traditional cookstoves to Improved Cookstoves can significantly reduce emissions of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs), including BC. But, for any given clean cooking solution, there are striking variations in the actual impacts that the cookstove implementation would have in a chosen region. These variations could arise as a result of stove make-and-model (that do not meet the needs of intended users), rates of adoption of the cookstove in households, and implementation strategy. To identify clean, usable and affordable stoves appropriate for women made RUWES in conjunction with Nexleaf Analytics conceptualise this project.

Regions of Operations:

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

The SCF Project support low-income women to receive direct payments via mobile money platform for their climate stewardship, which empowers them to repay their stove loans (when they acquire such stoves on loan) and also earn money for themselves. This, in turn, brings not only clean cooking but also financial inclusion to these women. Helping women to help themselves requires innovative financial instruments that serve both social and economic goals. Hence, we expect this innovative financing mechanism to transform the energy sector by increasing rural women‚ ability to pay for and demand better clean cooking technologies, so that clean cookstove programs not only in Nigeria but also other CCAC partner countries can be financially sustainable. 

The first phase of the project, which was conducted in 50 households, was to test for which stove women like and have preference for among the different cookstove models tested by monitoring cooking data objectively using sensor devices attached to each of the stoves and also collecting qualitative data. The second phase of the study is being scaled-up to 100 households to test for a workable financial model in order test if the model could enable women and households‚ transition to clean energy options like being able to purchase clean cookstoves on their own.