CARBON OFFSET PROGRAM
What is Carbon Avoidance?
Human activities have a direct effect on the carbon dioxide concentrations existing in the atmosphere currently. Carbon avoidance projects seek to curb emissions from human activities to prevent the emitting activities altogether or capture the emissions created.
Why Carbon Avoidance?
Protection of carbon sinks such as forests acts as a critical method of avoiding potential carbon emissions. Destruction of biodiversity in forest ecosystems caused by human deforestation leads to a release of stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
Justa Cookstove Project
Since 1998, we’ve been working with our partners and local community members to design clean cookstoves that reduce deadly household air pollution, deforestation, and money spent on fuel. We design, produce, and distribute our stove parts in-country, creating jobs for rural tradespeople and employment for local small manufacturers.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are 4.1 million premature deaths per year due to respiratory conditions caused by indoor cooking. In Central America alone there almost 20 million people cooking with firewood daily. A primary source of black carbon stems from the traditional use of biomass. Black carbon, a short-lived aerosol with high global warming potential, could be avoided with universal clean cooking (‘A Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All’, n.d.).
Each cookstove decreases a family's need for firewood by 50-70% compared to standard open-fire cooking and reduces carbon emissions by at least 1.5 tons per year. These improved cookstoves decrease indoor air pollution when vented outside the home. Our clean cookstove program is unique because we build all of our stoves in-country, using locally sourced materials and creating much-needed jobs within each program country.
Environmental Benefits
Burning wood fuels accouts to 1.9 - 2.3% of global emissions.
More than half of black carbon emissions stem from household fuel combustion.
Deposition of black carbon in the Arctic cauing sea ice melt.
Unsustainable harvesting of wood fuel contributing to climate change.
Co-benefits
Economic empowerment of women, selling three times more stoves after training.
Reduced cases of gender-based violence.
Increased productivity levels for women.
Contributes to gender equity.
Your support of TWP's clean cookstove program provides a family with a solution that eliminates smoke from their kitchens, protecting cooks and children from long-term harm.
Sponsor a cookstove, give the gift of a stove for a friend or family member, offset your CO2 footprint by supporting our stove programs, or travel with us on a TWP Work Tour to help build one. Most importantly, help us spread the word about Trees, Water & People!
Gift of a Stove
Over four million people a year die from exposure to indoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization. Most of these deaths are women and their children, who typically spend most of their time in smoky kitchens. A clean cookstove can dramatically improve the health of a family by reducing indoor air pollution by up to 90%. Cooking becomes much safer for women and children while also reducing environmental impact on local forests.
Your gift of a stove can improve quality of life for families immediately.
$25 & $75
Bank transfer donations take a few days to process, you will receive your tax receipt email once it goes through.
FAQs
Source: The Climate Trust, AR5, Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
1. Offset credit.
Represents the reduction, removal, or avoidance of GHG emissions from a specific project that is used to compensate for GHG emissions occurring elsewhere. One offset credit represents 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent.
2. Greenhouse gases (GHGs).
GHGs are the seven gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) (Russell, n.d.).
3. GHG sink.
Any process that removes GHG emissions from the atmosphere and stores them.
4. Emissions.
The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (Levin et al., n.d.).
5. Who uses offsets?
Offsets are most widely used by companies that have set emissions reduction targets, and they have become an increasingly popular way to address indirect emissions; those resulting from actions over which the entity has no direct control (i.e. supplier emissions, or product usage by consumers).
6. How is an offset created?
An offset credit begins as an emission reduction quantified against a baseline scenario (a.k.a. “business as usual”).
7. What are the benefits of offset projects?
Carbon offset projects have benefits far beyond their greenhouse gas reductions; referred to as co-benefits. Benefits from projects on forested lands include improved water quality and biodiversity, can help to finance everything from conservation of land, to more sustainable agricultural practices, to distribution of cleaner cookstoves in developing countries.
8. Do offsets let polluters off the hook?
No. The underlying principle behind quality offset projects is called additionality—if a change in practice, or a carbon reduction would have happened regardless, due to regulation, or in the course of business as usual, no offset is created. In this way, carbon markets ensure they are incentivizing, rather than simply rewarding, practices that reduce carbon. Reference: https://www.coloradocarbonfund.org/portfolio
9. CO2 equivalent (CO2e)
The universal unit of measurement to indicate the global warming potential (GWP) of each greenhouse gas, expressed in terms of the GWP of one unit of carbon dioxide. It is used to evaluate different greenhouse gases against a common basis.
10. Sequestration
The uptake and storage of CO2 which can be sequestered by plants or in underground or deep-sea reservoirs.
11. Emissions
The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
12. Black carbon
A climate-forcing agent formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel, and biomass.
13. Global warming potential (GWP)
A factor describing the radiative forcing impact (degree of harm to the atmosphere) of one unit of a given GHG relative to one unit of CO2.
14. Co-benefits.
The positive effects that a policy or measure aimed at one objective might have on other objectives, irrespective of the net effect on overall social welfare. Co-benefits are often subject to uncertainty and depend on local circumstances and implementation practices, among other factors. Co-benefits are also referred to as ancillary benefits.