Kyoto and Solar Cookers
One solar cooker with a lifespan of 20 years, when used to cook half of a family’s meals, can save as much as three tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
Consumer Offset Quality
What makes Kyoto Twist a good choice for purchasing your carbon offsets?
Our goal is to provide the highest quality carbon offset available in the voluntary sector. See “Kyoto and Solar Cookers” for an explanation of the voluntary carbon credit. Clean Air–Cool Planet, a non-profit organization based in northeastern U.S. that promotes solutions to global warming, in 2006, published “A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers.” This report contains an excellent introduction to the retail offsets market and a retail offsets glossary. They evaluated 30 providers of carbon offsets from around the world with the seven criteria that you see listed below. Kyoto Twist seeks to meet the report’s criteria for a quality offset. Here we discuss the report’s seven quality criteria and what the Kyoto Twist does to meet them.
1. PROVIDERS’ PRIORITIZATION OF OFFSET QUALITY
KT believes that solar cooker projects are an excellent way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, these projects provide many ancillary benefits listed in number 6 below. Solar cookers replace and/or greatly reduce the need for firewood, charcoal, fossil fuels, and other biomass used throughout the world for cooking.
2. BUYERS’ ABILITY TO TRANSPARENTLY EVALUATE OFFSET QUALITY
Through our website and our project reports we aim to show how much care and diligence goes into each project. Our project application and guidelines are used to screen for the best possible partners to carry out selecting participants, training, and follow-up evaluations. These projects are carried out in areas with poor communications and rigorous living conditions. We work with experienced groups who have worked in the solar cooker movement and have great knowledge of how to work in the culture of their host communities and with local partners. We strive to manage projects at a cost of $10.00 US per tonne. In the voluntary credit sector, this is an excellent value.
3. TRANSPARANCY IN PROVIDER OPERATIONS AND OFFSET SELECTION
Our track record is posted on our website through our “Projects” page. We report on the general project structure and when the project is completed we add data which shows fuel usage before and after implementation of the project and the tonnes of CO2 and family fuel budget saved.
4. PROVIDER’S UNDERSTANDING THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF OFFSET QUALITY
We have written a synopsis on the subject of offsetting on the website under “Kyoto Accord and Solar Cooking”. Kyoto Twist carbon offsets are carried out using the criteria for voluntary credits under the VCS in every way possible for each project design. Credits are counted only one time- never double counted. Additionality is attained by the fact that Solar cooker projects are all additional in that these are projects that would not have happened in any other way (i.e. through government programs, etc.) Permanence is addressed in that as with any technology, the offset lasts only as long as the solar cooker is being used. Since solar cookers have a range of life expectancy (from 2 to 25 years), KT uses a formula to take into consideration use by year- the Family Solar Cooking Year (see website’s “Donations” for an explanation of the FSCY)
5. PRIORITY ASSIGNED BY PROVIDER TO EDUCATING CONSUMERS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING AND GLOBAL WARMING POLICY
Global warming is accelerating at a rate that threatens the environment which supports life on this planet. The Kyoto Twist has listed sites and resources for you to become better educated on the causes and possible responses to our runaway use of carbon-based fuels. The Kyoto Twist is one response to the carbon emission mitigation strategies we can use in combinations to address the progression of global warming.
6. ANCILLARY ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS OF OFFSET PORTFOLIOS
Solar cookers are an excellent way to both reduce GHGs and provide additional benefits:
• Health
Reduction of respiratory illnesses, eye diseases, water-bourne pathenogenic diseases with water pasteurization, burns
• Economic
Improves balance of trade with reduces need to import fossil fuels for cooking
Families can use savings in fuel cost for family health needs, medical needs, education, and higher nutritional-value foods
• Environment
Decreases deforestation stresses due to providing wood and charcoal for cooking fuel
Saves needed fruit and nut trees from being used as fuel
Helps prevent desertification and displacement and loss of plant and animal species
In addition, solar cooker implementation addresses every one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (see website’s “UN Millennium Development Goals”)
7. USE OF THIRD PARTY PROTOCOLS AND CERTIFICATION
The Kyoto Twist aims to produce projects within the policies and procedures of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (see website’s “Kyoto Accord and Solar Cookers”). We will do this wherever possible and still maintain our partnerships and a low cost per tonne of carbon emission reductions. In the future we will look for opportunities to do projects under the auspices of the VCS or the Clean Development Mechanism of the UN. Our goal now is to validate our offsets with the assistance of peer review. We require data collection of fuel costs, use and reductions and report on our outcomes. With the experience we have collected, we are positioning our organization to be able to put into place larger projects of great benefit in the future as the opportunities present themselves.
Save a tonne, Save a life.
