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Clean air thanks to efficient cookstoves


India, Raichur
ClimatePartner ID: 1069
Improved cookstovesGet to know the project

This cookstove project in Raichur makes everyday life easier for many smallholder families. In rural India, many people live in the simplest of conditions. For cooking, they usually use wood fires in simple stoves, from which much of the heat escapes, wasting a lot of energy and resources. In addition, the smoke significantly pollutes indoor air quality.

What sounds troublesome from a prosperity perspective has serious consequences for people: Respiratory diseases are a serious threat, and children and women are particularly affected. They are also the ones who spend many hours every day to procure the necessary wood. That is why the efficient "Chulika Stoves", which are distributed as part of the project, help women in Raichur in particular. Since the stoves consume 67.5 percent less fuel, they can save long distances as well as money on fuel.

The project is the first climate project for Germany to be certified with the Fairtrade Climate Standard. From the Faitrade Climate Standard, the community also receives a premium that they can use to adapt to increasingly extreme conditions caused by climate change.

43,215 t CO₂Estimated annual emissions reductions
Project Standard
The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
How improved cookstoves contribute to climate action

According to a statistic from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2024) around a third of the global population still relies on un­safe and environmentally harmful cooking methods. This includes, for example, cooking over open fires or using polluting cooking fuels, such as coal or kerosene. Improved cookstoves tackle this problem by using thermal energy more efficiently.

Depending on the model, an improved cookstove can reduce fuel consumption by up to 70 percent, which significantly saves CO2 emissions and can lower the pressure on local forests as less firewood needs to be harvested.

Improved cookstove projects allow the distribution of the - often simple - devices made from metal or clay to households, small enterprises or community facilities. Especially for households, this has an impact beyond the CO2 reduction: better indoor air quality decreases respiratory diseases and families can save time and money as less fuel is needed. Improved cookstoves projects in the ClimatePartner portfolio are registered with international standards.

The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Project facts

Climate projects generally fall into one of three groups: carbon reduction, carbon removal, or carbon avoidance. Carbon reduction projects reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a specific activity (e.g., improved cookstoves). Carbon removal projects remove carbon from the atmosphere by sequestering it in carbon sinks (e.g., reforestation). Carbon avoidance projects avoid greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere (e.g., protecting forests from deforestation with REDD+ projects).

Climate projects demonstrably reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved with various technologies, ranging from nature-based solutions to social impact projects and renewable energies.

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Verification happens regularly after each monitoring period. A validation and verification body checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct and verifies them. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the process.

This figure shows the estimated annual emission reductions calculated before the project started. The actual number of emissions saved in each monitoring period may differ. The background to this process is that in order to be registered as a climate project, the project operator must submit the calculation of the estimated emissions savings using the ex-ante methodology in a Project Design Document (PDD), which is similar to a business plan. This calculation is validated by an independent auditor. The values determined in the PDD are recalculated during regular monitoring periods based on actual project performance, documented in a monitoring report, and verified again by independent auditors at the end of the monitoring period to ensure a robust process. Independent verification thus provides ex-post verification of actual emission reductions. Verified emission reductions are not distributed until the savings have actually been made.
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