Approximately 80 percent of households in China rely on solid fuels such as coal and biomass for a portion of their household energy. This practice results in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environmental degradation. Additionally, indoor air pollution from household cooking and heating with solid fuels is responsible for more than 380,000 premature deaths annually in China (according to a 2007 WHO study). Poisonous coals also cause major health problems such as endemic fluorosis and arsenic poisoning in some of the poorest rural areas of China.

Impact Carbon has been working on efficient, healthy stove projects in China for four years. We are currently developing a carbon offset project that will eventually disseminate efficient cookstoves to the 80 million Chinese people now cooking with coal.

The Shanxi Province project focuses on rural townships with high coal consumption. Shanxi Province ranks fourth among China’s 32 provinces for total residential coal consumption. Rural residential coal use has increased 28 percent during the 10-year period from 1997 to 2007.

Impact Carbon is working with local partners to disseminate efficient, clean-burning stoves that replace coal with crop residue as fuel. The project targets low-income rural residents who benefit from reduced exposure to coal residues, and from improved income from fuel savings. Carbon investment will directly subsidize stoves for poor and at-risk rural customers, and be used to conduct social marketing campaigns.