Keeling Curve

Primary Project Category:

Secondary Project Category:

Name of Project:

Year Project Originated:

Project Summary / Description:

OpenHAP fills a critical gap in measuring and mitigating the environmental and health effects of dirty fuel use in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, reliance on unclean fuels remains the primary source of residential greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond GHG pollution, these fuels also pose severe health hazards—particularly from carbon monoxide and PM2.5 exposure—which in Kenya alone cause an estimated 22,000 deaths every year.

While the World Bank and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have launched initiatives to help developing countries transition away from polluting fuels, researchers and governments still lack the practical, locally appropriate tools needed for comprehensive pollution monitoring. OpenHAP addresses this need by providing hardware, software, and knowledge resources, enabling governments to build and maintain robust pollution measurement infrastructure that feeds into nationwide pollution-mitigation efforts.

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

['Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses)', 'Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)']

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

OPENHAP empowers governments and program implementers in Sub-Saharan Africa to tackle GHG reduction and elimination projects by providing an integrated ecosystem of hardware, software, and knowledge resources for impact monitoring. Our ability to deliver gender-disaggregated data is crucial for understanding how women and youth, who often bear the heaviest health and economic burdens of dirty fuels, are affected. Recognizing the socio-cultural diversity across countries in Sub-Sahara Africa, OPENHAP facilitates the development of systematic, locally tailored policies and interventions that address both climate challenges and public health concerns.
EED Advisory as a locally built pan-African organization is fully made up of women, persons of color and thought leaders from climate-vulnerable communities. Our understanding of the local need drives OPENHAP's ethos in providing tech that can work well in rural Africa by offering accessible tools for emissions analysis and data collection, OPENHAP is currently enabling the World Bank to support governments such as Namibia to create SDG aligned evidence-based policies and programs on switching to cleaner cooking fuels. Additionally, in Kenya, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) is looking at leveraging the OPENHAP ecosystem to develop a public health database for community health volunteers to drive bottom-up national planning.

Sub-Categories: