This is the first article in a two-part series submitted through Impact Carbon a non-profit organization that implements high quality and highly scalable emission reduction projects in developing countries. Aneri Patel is their Business Development Fellow based in Kampala, Uganda.

In the neighborhood of Makindye located in Kampala, Uganda, Florence Kibuuka is cooking matoke (mashed plantains) with an improved charcoal cookstove. Florence proudly exclaims “the Ugastove product is so great that if I had the money, I would buy them for all my friends!  This stove saves me 1000 Ugandan shillings (about 50 US cents) per day on charcoal compared to the traditional stove.”

Florence Kibuuka, with an Ugastove and her older traditional cookstove

Florence is the proud owner of a Ugastove, manufactured by Ugandan Stove Manufacturers Limited (Ugastove Ltd.), a local company that produces improved cookstoves.

These improved cookstoves burn biomass more efficiently, lower family expenditure, mitigate deforestation, curtail green-house gas emissions and can help to reduce the exposure of families and cooks to dangerous air pollutants in smoke from indoor cooking.

The stoves have a thick clay lining that retains the heat using 35-50% less charcoal, thus saving families an average of US $80 a year.  The design was developed in consultation with US cookstove experts, which help manufacturers such as Ugastove produce these technologies using local materials and labor.

The problem
More than ninety percent of Ugandans rely on charcoal or firewood as an energy source, which contributes to significant destruction of national forests. Uganda’s National Environment Authority estimates that the country has lost two-thirds of its forests in the last twenty years and would lose it all by 2050 at present rates of deforestation. Read more »