Cool Carbon

Cool Carbon:

Posted June 6, 2008

What is Cool Carbon?

Offsetting your carbon emissions doesn't have to be an expensive, complicated or time-consuming process. Through Mercy Corps' Cool Carbon initiative, you can help address climate change issues — and commit to a greener lifestyle — by donating to climate-friendly projects that help individuals and families in the developing world.

These projects are not intended to offset your carbon ton-for-ton. To do this we would waste relatively large amounts of money on detailed technical monitoring, which would exclude community projects from the carbon market. What this initiative offers is a way of donating your offset money to climate friendly projects that reduce emissions while providing a host of real benefits to people who need support.

Cool Carbon's innovative new projects address both the issues of climate change and poverty reduction. We are piloting seven different projects — representing a range of countries and regions — that address environmental and economic issues at the grassroots level.

Cool Carbon allows businesses and individuals to make contributions that directly address climate change issues, with the assurance that all projects will be properly supported and evaluated by Mercy Corps. You will be able to track the progress of these projects with the concise and transparent information about how your investments have been spent, who the projects are benefiting and how carbon is being offset or sequestered. These updates will be available on the individual project pages.

The projects that are currently in the portfolio for this initiative include:

• Biodiesel fuel from recycled cooking oil (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Solar water heaters (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Biogas latrines (Colombia)
• Micro-hydro power (Colombia)
• Urban forestry (Colombia)
• Fuel efficient stoves (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• Biodiesel fuel from yak tallow (Mongolia)

Mercy Corps launched its climate change initiative in October 2006 as recognition that the effects of climate change can spur future global humanitarian crises and threaten to undermine the security and progress of the communities we serve.

In response, we're working to provide adaptation strategies for communities coping with the effects of climate change, while also providing viable energy options for communities that support development while reducing carbon emissions. Mercy Corps recognizes that these are small steps but each of these projects has the capacity to be scaled up for much larger impact. When families adopt these strategies and begin to create positive environmental change, we hope that governments will assist communities replicating those successes, leading to more widespread adoption of climate-friendly practices.

Cool Carbon:

Posted October 8, 2009 by Ross Hornsey

Promoting Fuel-Efficiency in Darjeeling

Country: India

Topics: Climate Change, Economic Development, Environment, Rural

Many rural agriculture and tea estate workers in India lead a fragile existence. Wages are low with often poor working conditions. Tea estate workers depend heavily on wood as their main source of energy with an average household using around 600 kg of firewood per month. Most cannot afford the cleaner, but more expensive options. Mercy Corps’s intention is to address fuel poverty with the aim of improving livelihoods and quality of life.

With firewood in short supply, many tea estates have stopped providing firewood quotas to laborers, and instead provide the cash equivalent to meet their legal obligations. Consequently many communities are resorting to illegal felling in government supervised forest reserves, causing widespread deforestation.

An associated problem is of food preparation and the care of siblings frequently taking place in and around the kitchen area, in the vicinity of these traditional clay wood-burning stoves. They emit large amounts of smoke, exacerbating risks from smoke particles and chemicals.

In addition women and young adults spend up to 18 hours per week collecting firewood, taking time away from other activities that would contribute to household income. The firewood required denudes the forest cover limiting the amount of fodder available for animals. Raising cows and goats historically has been one of the major sources of income, now threatened.

Reducing firewood consumption with fuel efficient stoves would simultaneously improve health, reduce deforestation and reduce costs for marginal communities.

Mercy Corps will achieve this through a community awareness campaign, training communities to encourage installation of the stoves, and developing microenterprise in stove installation.

Each household that uses a fuel efficient stove and ultimately replaces the fuel by a renewable resource could reduce their emissions by 12 tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to the yearly emissions of one US household.

Each stove costs £10 (£10), including installation and training.

Cool Carbon:

Posted July 8, 2009

Colombia: Community Forestry Project

Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is located in a valley high in the Andes Mountains. With approximately seven million inhabitants, the urban area sprawls over numerous wetlands and waterways. The 45-year conflict in Colombia has caused mass displacement, with people fleeing from the war-torn countryside to settle into rings of slums that surround large cities like Bogota. The communities of internally displaced people (IDPs) living in these slums suffer from limited access to water, electricity and paved roads, as well as inefficient sewer systems.

The spontaneous and unplanned growth of urban slums has caused numerous environmental and social problems. On the environmental side, loss of vegetation and encroachment into wetland areas is affecting biodiversity, while reducing the potential for taking carbon emissions from the air. From a social perspective, houses are being built of unsteady materials on marginal sites that — due in part to environmental degradation that includes erosion — are prone to landslides, flooding and high winds.

Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere due to the excessive pollution in Bogota. This is being exacerbated by the loss of vegetation, land and availability of the wetlands to act as a storm buffer.

How we're helping

Your donation will make a difference.

The Community Forestry Project will focus on planting and managing trees in public areas and private backyards, providing the greatest potential for improving the local environment of a heavily polluted and degraded city like Bogota. These activities also increase the absorption of CO2 that is being released into the atmosphere.

Just £275 will provide 100 trees for this project, as well as valuable technical assistance to communities in need — that equates to just £2.75 per tree. So far, we've raised £4,059 You can click here to support this project through a donation to our Climate Change Initiative.

How your investment will be used

The project has a three-fold approach:

1. Mitigating unfavorable trends in climate change by planting trees, which provide wood fuel and fruit, in urban environments and surrounding hillsides,
2. Conserving and restoring waterways and wetlands, while reducing settlement pressure on environmentally important and marginalised areas, and
3. Promoting sustainable resource management practices, which will improve income levels as well as strengthen communities' ability to prevent environmental degradation.

It only costs £2.75 per tree to better the environment for thousands of impoverished Colombian families.

Cool Carbon:

Posted June 6, 2008

Colombia: Biogas Latrines for Internally Displaced People

The 45-year-long armed conflict in Colombia has intensified over the past eight years, resulting in nearly four million internally displaced people (IDPs). Most IDPs originate from rural communities and have been forcefully displaced by fighting among left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and the army. The majority of IDPs settle in urban slums surrounding Colombia's major cities, with no intention of returning to their original communities due to the absence of security and, more frequently, the presence of land mines.

The lack of sanitation facilities in IDP neighborhoods is widespread. Many households do not have electricity or running water, while those that do are often unable to pay their energy bills. Water-borne diseases are a frequent cause of illness leading to malnourishment — among children in particular. Inappropriate sanitation facilities also contribute to increased CO2 emissions from greenhouse gases.

The tragedy of IDPs in Colombia has endemic social, economic and environmental repercussions that Mercy Corps seeks to address.

How we're helping

Your donation will make a difference.

Mercy Corps Colombia is providing assistance to IDPs in emergency settings, as well as encouraging long-term integration into their adopted communities. The influx of a large number of IDP families into already poor neighborhoods with extremely limited access to water, sanitation, adequate housing, health and education has exasperated already squalid living conditions.

In response to sanitation and environmental concerns, we will pilot biogas latrines in urban slums. The initiative will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This initial project will begin in Popayán, the capital of the Cauca Department southwestern Colombia. The work will be implemented in partnership with APROTEC, a local Colombian non-governmental organisation specialising in renewable energy.

Each biogas digestor latrine costs £330 to construct, and saves 0.8 tons in CO2 emissions per year. You can click here to support this project through a donation to our Climate Change Initiative.

How your investment will be used

The project will build low-cost biogas digester latrines in participant households. The biogas digester technology already exists in Colombia on a small scale that can be expanded, particularly in urban areas. With community participation — and with APROTEC's technical support — practical, low-cost biogas digesting latrines will be designed, tested and then replicated in other IDP communities.

Cool Carbon:

Posted June 6, 2008

Colombia: Micro-Hydroelectric Energy

Country: Colombia

The extensive Amazon lowlands and rugged mountainous regions of Colombia are home to rural communities where families live in isolation and poverty. Cut off from the rest of the country, these largely indigenous communities have extremely poor health and education facilities. They mostly rely on subsistence agriculture to eke out a living.

In terms of energy sources, the communities generally use kerosene lanterns or rely on small, inefficient, unreliable and non-renewable diesel powered generators that combine to create a significant source of CO2 emissions.

These challenges not only contribute to environmental degradation, but also hinder economic development for poor families.

How we're helping

Your donation will make a difference.

Because there are such ample hydrological resources — such as rivers and streams — in rural Colombia, Mercy Corps proposes a two-part strategy to meet the energy needs of rural Colombia in a more sustainable way.

The first part is community energy development, with a goal of increasing the capacity and technical abilities to manage an energy project. The second part is providing the capital and engineering expertise to establish a pilot micro-hydroelectric system with a view toward replication in a number of communities.

Mercy Corps will be working in partnership with APROTEC, a local non-governmental organisation that has built a number of micro-hydroelectric projects in indigenous areas, rural communities and marginal urban neighbourhoods throughout Colombia. Together, we will construct a micro-hydroelectric project for the Minaflores community in the mountainous region of Tierradentro. The Minaflores community, one of eight communities in Tierradentro region, is keen to replicate the success of a neighbouring village by establishing a micro-hydroelectric system that will provide sufficient, reliable electricity for 22 families.

You can click here to support this project through a donation to our Climate Change Initiative.

How your investment will be used

Under the leadership of a project director and APROTEC technical specialists, the community will construct the infrastructure required for the installation of the hydroelectric facility: stream intake, canal, sand filters, pump housing, machinery shed, machinery installation, ditches and bridges. The installation team will also be trained to take over day-to-day operations and maintenance for the hydroelectric facility. Local transportation and all labour will be provided by the community who will also, subject to appropriate environmental screening, contribute all the local materials needed for the construction such as rock, gravel and sand, wood and other locally sourced materials.

The traditional authorities in the indigenous area will appoint community members to be responsible for collecting payment for electricity, as well as administering the funds to ensure sound financial management.

Mercy Corps will help with appropriate governance and fiscal oversight, provide training in accounting and bookkeeping, and ensure proper linkages to the traditional community leadership of the Nasa (Paez) culture.

The carbon emission reduction associated with a 17kWh micro-hydro facility for Minaflores is estimated to be 51 tons of CO2 per year, or 1,020 tons of CO2 over its anticipated 20-year lifespan.

Wider benefits of electricity provision in Minaflores will be enhanced educational opportunities (availability of the school in the evening, access to computers), improved food security (through food refrigeration), improved health (refrigeration of vaccines, lighting in health clinics) and the creation of additional opportunities for economic development.

Successes — and lessons learned — from this pilot project will be applied to future projects in other communities of the Tierradentro region.

Cool Carbon:

Posted July 8, 2009

Indonesia: Biogas from Waste

Country: Indonesia

Topics: Citizen Involvement, Marginalized Groups, Urban, Water/Sanitation

Jakarta, the sprawling capital of Indonesia, is home to more than nine million people, with anywhere from two to four million people commuting to the city for work each day. Many residents are rural migrants without legal status, struggling to make money in the vast informal economy.

These families often live in makeshift housing that's excluded from basic urban services such as clean water, sanitation and waste management. Only two percent of Jakarta's urban area is connected to the sewage system, while only about half of the estimated 6,000 tons of solid waste produced per day is managed in any way.

In the population-dense slums of Jakarta, poverty and overcrowding — combined with lack of adequate sanitation and waste disposal — leads to unhealthy, unhygienic and environmentally damaging conditions.

At the same time, a lack of accessible, affordable fuel and electricity inhibits income generation and raises expenditures for already-struggling families. Without reliable electricity, they're unable to work at night on such income-generating activities as food preparation, crafts and sewing. Valuable time is also lost for children to study or read.

In addition, high and severely fluctuating cooking fuel prices affect the quantity and quality of food that poor families are able to consume, potentially leading to malnutrition. This also jeopardizes the day-to-day operations of small food carts, one of the major income-generation strategies of Jakarta’s poor.

How we're helping

Your donation will make a difference.

Mercy Corps will begin alleviating these problems in an especially-impoverished area called Penjaringan, through the installation of biogas facilities that convert human and other organic waste into energy that can be used for cooking and lighting. In addition, an education programme will build awareness with slum communities and local governments around this new technology, and develop the maintenance capacity to make it sustainable.

The biogas programme is being piloted in tenement houses for low-income families in high-density urban areas; an environment with enough closeness of community for the residents to work together on waste separation and maintenance. As a result, the energy produced can be channelled to communal kitchens or high-power gas lanterns for much-needed fuel and lighting solutions.

This innovative project will serve as the basis for replication throughout Jakarta, a city with massive energy shortages and equally massive sanitation problems.

The initial budget for the project is £20,000. So far, Cool Carbon supporters have generated £877 You can click here to support this project through a donation to our Climate Change Initiative.

Cool Carbon:

Posted December 22, 2008

Mongolia: Yak Tallow Bio-diesel

Country: Mongolia

Mongolia is a land-locked country with a vast land area — settlements are scattered across its enormous landscape and separated by long distances. The rising costs of transportation and fuel are causing difficulties for many, but particularly for families living in isolated rural areas, who have seen fuel prices rise twofold or even threefold over the last six years. At the same time, air pollution from diesel engines has increased dramatically, prompting the Mongolian government to analyze and control automotive emissions.

The heightened fuel poverty and levels of pollution have led to considerable interest in converting yak tallow into bio-diesel. In the Mongolian culture, every part of the animal is used except the tallow which, unlike most other fats, is inedible. Only small amounts of yak tallow are currently used for candles.

Using this waste product would help to reduce air pollution, generate extra income for poor herders and contribute to a reduction in worldwide CO2 levels. There are large numbers of yak across many areas of Mongolia, so it is an abundant and renewable resource.

How we're helping

Your donation will make a difference.

Mercy Corps Mongolia is working in partnership with a Chinese university — which will be providing scientific and technical expertise — to build several bio-diesel conversion plants. The size of each plant can vary from a small unit that can be operated by a single herder to a larger semi-commercial operation.

The bio-diesel generated from yak tallow can be used in the same ways as mineral-based diesel fuel, provided it is produced to the required specification. It has a range of environmental benefits when compared to mineral diesel:

• It burns more cleanly than mineral diesel, reducing the emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulphates and particulates
• The CO2 produced during its combustion is, to a large extent, offset by the CO2 absorbed during the growth of the crops used to produce the oil
• Bio-diesel also has a very low toxicity and quickly biodegrades, therefore presenting a far lower hazard on spillage than mineral diesel
• It is safer and easier to handle

The initial budget for the project is £10,000. You can click here to support this project through a donation to our Climate Change Initiative.

How your investment will be used

Mercy Corps plans to set up a pilot plant for the conversion of yak tallow into bio-diesel. Once the economic benefits of this are demonstrated, we hope that it will lead to widespread interest in the use of tallow as fuel.

Microfinance options will be established to help herders afford the initial capital costs of buying conversion plants. Here are a few estimates of vehicle numbers that the plants could be used to fuel, as well as expected carbon reductions:

• One plant can process almost 11,000 kg (about 12 tons) of yak tallow each year, fueling 10 vehicles and keeping 21 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere,
• Ten plants can process nearly 110,000 kg (about 120 tons) a year, fueling 100 vehicles and reducing carbon emissions by 210 tons,
• And 100 plants could process nearly 1.1 million kg (about 1200 tons) a year, fueling 1000 vehicles and resulting in 2100 tons of CO2 reduction.

This will generate vital income for local herders in addition to reducing worldwide CO2 levels. The intended outcome is that the economic and environmental benefits will lead to widespread replication throughout the country.