The Problem: Nearly half the world’s population uses dirty fuels for household cooking and heating. The resulting indoor air pollution is responsible for approximately 1.6 million premature deaths annually, or one death every 20 seconds. Soot produced from cooking is the primary source of global black carbon emissions, a powerful greenhouse pollutant. Poor households spend large amounts of income and time acquiring fuel, a burden that, like illness from indoor air pollution, is shouldered mostly by women. Furthermore, deforestation from gathering fuels such as charcoal and wood destroys ecosystems, reduces biodiversity and causes erosion, reducing the availability of arable land.

Impact Carbon Fights Poverty with Clean Energy: Improved cookstoves and other clean household energy technologies that save fuel are a cost-effective opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and achieve development goals.  Impact Carbon scales cookstove and other micro-energy projects, making clean energy technologies affordable and accessible. These technologies save income, improve health and protect the environment. Impact Carbon leverages the financial returns from carbon offsets for social and environmental impact in less developed communities worldwide.