African Climate Technology Center selects projects for cooking-based climate mitigation and adaptation
The African Climate Technology Center (ACTC) has the mission of supporting Sub-Saharan countries in scaling-up the adoption of clean technologies for adaptation and mitigation, through activities that include knowledge creation and dissemination, support to policies and enabling environment and support to projects. The ACTC is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with the African Development Bank as the implementing organ.
At the end of 2016, the ACTC launched a competitive process to support research on the modalities to increase the diffusion of climate friendly technologies in three areas: 1) Integration of Intermittent Renewable Energy Technologies in on-grid and off-grid markets; 2) Market based approaches on the diffusion of Clean Cooking Solutions; 3) Efficient use of climate change adaptation technologies in water usage (e.g. irrigation, supply) (or) storm water/flood management in SSA cities.
The call for proposal raised much interest and seventy-five institutions or consortia submitted their research proposals. Following the review process, nine institutions have been selected (outlined below) and will start their activities in March 2017 for a period of one year. These project will contribute to the objective of creating and sharing knowledge and will strengthen the capacity of African research institutions in these areas.
Clean Cooking Solutions
The Berkeley Air Monitoring Group (US), in partnership with International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development / University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Project Gaia Prospects Ltd. and Winrock International will conduct a pilot evaluation of diffusion and usage of ethanol cooking technology in urban neighborhoods of Lagos. The pilot evaluation will seek to a) identify consumer triggers and motivations for the uptake and use of ethanol cooking technologies and address barriers to adoption pathway and b) measure the emissions performance of the ethanol cooking system and model its potential impact on climate outcomes.
The University of Liverpool (UK), in collaboration with the Global LPG Partnership (GLPGP) and the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research (Oslo) will work on modelling the health and climate co-benefits of scaled-up Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) adoption in Cameroon. The Country has an established LPG market (around 12% of the population in 2014) and its government recently initiated plans to expand adoption of LPG. The research will describe the impacts of the planned expansion of LPG use for cooking in Cameroon on both population health and climate change mitigation through modelling transitional changes in fuel use patterns.
The Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University for Science and Technology (JOOUST) (Kenya) in partnership with African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), Clean Cookstoves Association of Kenya, University of Dar es salaam, Tanzania and Pennsylvania State University, USA will research on market approaches for the diffusion of clean cooking solutions in Kenya and Tanzania. The project aims to evaluate and develop strategies for catalyzing the diffusion and adoption of clean cooking solutions in East Africa and will will collect both quantitative and qualitative data using mixed methodologies such as desk review, household surveys using questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.