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October 2014 Mark Simpson, Managing Director, CO2balance UK LtdWelcome to our October newsletter that follows hot on the heels of the UN Climate Summit held in New York last week. For the first time, we can reflect on some positive action from the world leaders who attended international talks on how to tackle climate change. Both the US and China made specific reference to recently experienced extreme weather events that are forming the growing body of evidence that our climate is changing. The economic impact of these extreme weather events was underlined and - in what constitutes a bold move at these events - China made reference to their man made emissions 'peaking as soon as possible'. Despite the reluctance of countries to blink first when it comes to making a commitment, the run up to summit saw over 1000 companies sign a World Bank Initiative to encourage governments to set a price on carbon, which would act as an economic incentive to reduce greenhouse emissions. Business, it seems, has a valuable role to play in driving action to curb climate change where governments fear to tread. We have had a busy summer at CO2balance in which we have continued to develop exciting new climate change mitigation projects under our microprogramme that spans the African continent. This past month we have seen our first ever projects in Cameroon (West Cameroon Cookstoves) and Sierra Leone (Bombali Safe Water) formally recognised by the Gold Standard. We have established 4 new safe water projects in Malawi, 4 in Bangladesh and 5 in Rwanda; we have also brought online 7 new cookstoves projects in Rwanda, 2 in Kenya (with partner World Vision) and 1 in Mozambique (with partner Cloros). In terms of action on the ground, we have completed the roll out of 900 artisanal improved cookstoves as a microenterprise operated by the Umeme Women's group in West Kisumu, and have just built our 9,000th stove in our Rwanda programme! Our new safe water project roll out in Eastern Region, Uganda is now complete and over 8,000 people are now drinking clean water as a result of our work. As many of our readers are already aware, our projects are designed to have maximum positive environmental and health impacts for the communities we work with. To improve the way in we which we report these impacts, we have developed a robust monitoring framework based on the London Benchmarking Group Model, used to report corporate social responsible project investments. We will be rolling this new approach out over the coming months, please keep an eye on our website for updates. I hope you enjoy this month's edition that will bring you stories and insights from our team working on projects in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and Sierra Leone. Best wishes, Mark |
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All set for Safe Water in MalawiLast week we received confirmation from the Gold Standard that our first 4 micro scale borehole projects in Malawi had been Listed.
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Our first Project in Sierra LeoneCO2balance are proud to announce their first ever carbon project in Sierra Leone has been listed today on the Gold Standard Registry. The Gold Standard Micro-Scale Borehole Project in Sierra Leone involves the rehabilitation and maintenance of hand-pumped boreholes owned by communities in Bombali District, in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. The CO2balance borehole project will create a network of functioning boreholes throughout the country. In addition to supplying clean, safe water and mitigating climate change, this project will impact local peoples lives by... |
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Positive impacts from our Rwanda cookstoves programmeIn the past weeks we have analysed several monitoring studies conducted for the VPA 1 Bugesera Improved Cook Stoves (GS 1267) project and we were very pleased to receive such positive feedbacks on the project from our stove users. |
Other NewsThe Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is Among the Finalists for the P3 Impact Award Empowering Women in West Kisumu For further information on any of our projects and services please get in touch. |
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