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Project Summary / Description:

Solar Cookers International (SCI) will increase solar cooking in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya to mitigate climate change. Solar thermal cooking technology is an effective solution to a multitude of global challenges. Solar cookers have no emissions and use free solar energy for cooking and water pasteurization. Solar cooking allows people to breathe cleaner air and drink safer water; it prevents greenhouse emissions; protects biodiversity and habitats; and increases safety and opportunities for women and children. Solar cooking is a cross-cutting solution that has a positive impact on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Unlike most cooking methods, solar cookers produce no greenhouse gas emissions. Solar cooking is a proven thermal process that uses appropriate technology to convert incoming sunlight (light energy) directly to heat (thermal energy) without using complex/costly equipment or electronics. Solar thermal cookers are off-grid, and hence an ideal, appropriate solution that can be implemented relatively quickly with no large-scale infrastructure required.

SCI estimates that if all the households in Kenya currently cooking with solid fuels (i.e.: dung, charcoal, firewood) switched to preparing meals with solar cookers, over 17 million metric tonnes of CO2 could be avoided annually. If the population cooking with solid fuels switched to using solar cookers one-quarter of the time, the country could save over 2 billion dollars annually through avoided health and environmental costs. Kenya is bestowed with high and stable solar radiation across the entire country, making Kakuma Refugee Camp ripe for the expansion of solar cooking.

Since solar cooking alleviates the need to cook with firewood, it helps prevent deforestation. Forests are important carbon pools that sequester carbon by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transforming it into biomass through photosynthesis. So not only does solar cooking help prevent climate change by avoiding the emissions of greenhouse gases from burning wood, but climate change benefits are also compounded by leaving trees in place.

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Cooking over open fires not only contributes to climate change, but it causes families to face adverse health impacts from smoking fires, especially women and children. Globally, millions die annually due to respiratory illnesses caused by indoor air pollution. Cooking smoke is the major cause of these illnesses, especially for young children. Women are primarily responsible for cooking and feeding their families and women and girls are also typically responsible for collecting firewood to use for cooking. Women suffer the most from food insecurity due to drought and floods as they often feed their children before themselves.

Because women and girls commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from cooking over open fires, the project specifically empowers women and girls to implement the effective and equitable climate change solution of solar cooking. This project involves women in the project decision-making processes at many stages. For example, women provide feedback to help shape the project on their current cooking practices (i.e.: types of meals cooked and related factors, and types of cookware, stoves, and fuel used), amount and costs of current fuel usage, and the number of meals cooked. Their feedback helps define the selection of the appropriate solar cooker(s) used. Women are involved in shaping the training and are active participants in learning about the use and maintenance of their solar cookers. Women can serve as solar cooking advocates and future trainers for further adoption of solar cookers. Their voices are used to share their success stories and amplify the adoption of solar cookers. Women also provide feedback to assess the outcomes of the effort, including data concerning their use of solar cookers, how many meals the cookers are making, and savings in time and money relative to changed fuel purchases. Individuals with disabilities are also empowered with this project because collecting cooking firewood can be extremely challenging and solar cooking alleviates the need for firewood.

Kakuma Refugee Camp is primarily inhabited by people from South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia. The refugees fled their countries after experiencing high insecurity and civil strife. Many of them are impoverished and part of our planet’s most disadvantaged population. Kakuma refugees are empowered in all steps of the project as active participants and advocates for solar cooking.

Kenya is definitely a climate-vulnerable country. Future climate trends on temperature and precipitation stated in Kenya’s Adaptation Technical Analysis Report are foreboding. Global Climate Modelling data indicate that the mean annual temperature is projected to increase by between 0.8 and 1.5°C by the 2030s and 1.6°C to 2.7°C by the 2060s. Kenya faces many risks from climate variability and change, with key climatic hazards being droughts, floods, and sea-level rise. Kenya’s economy is highly dependent on natural resources, meaning that recurring droughts, erratic rainfall patterns, and floods will continue to negatively impact livelihoods and communities. Solar cooking provides the underrepresented a hands-on solution that prevents greenhouse gas emissions, while improving health, livelihoods, communities, and the environment.

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