SDG 13 IN KENYA

Wangare Okello's story

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SDG 13 is aiming to support all countries to implement measures to reduce their CO2 emissions, whilst improving public knowledge of the issue and help countries cope with or avoide climate-related shocks. These measures are essential to help countries adhere to their ‘nationally determined contributions’, according to the Paris Agreement.

Kenya has pledged a 30% reduction in its national-level CO2 emissions compared to the business-as-usual projection by 2030.

75 year old Wangare Okello has lived for her entire life in the same village in Mathira East in Kenya’s Central Region. She recounts that she has seen staggering changes in her community over her lifetime, with the dense forest that surrounded the village in her childhood having given way to sparse, arid scrubland in recent years, as the community’s population grew and demand for firewood increased exponentially.

Wangare has a very large household, with 12 people typically being home when all of her children and grandchildren are present. She notes that prior to receiving the CarbonZero stove, the household was using the 3-stone fire, a highly inefficient cookery method which is commonly used in rural areas throughout sub-Saharan Africa. When using this technology, the family could use up to 15kg of firewood per day. According to a recent UN study, this is equivalent to burning an entire 3 year old fast-growing tree every day. The family saw the ever diminishing forest stocks around the village and felt bad for the impact that they knew they were having on it, but had no choice because the family needed to eat and no other cooking technology was available.

All of this changed when Wangare’s household was amongst the 5,000 households in Mathira East to receive a CarbonZero efficient cookstove. This stove retains heat extremely effectively, enabling users to reduce their firewood use to less than half of what it would be on a 3-stone fire whilst cooking for the same period of time. This has caused firewood consumption to fall dramatically in Mathira East, decreasing pressure on forest stocks and allowing trees to regenerate naturally.

Additionally, households using the CZ stove have received guidance on the importance of tree-planting in order to support the quality of the soil around their homesteads. Many users have established tree nurseries around their homesteads, which has a very positive impact on the water retention of the soil, thus increasing agricultural yields, and of course contributes to combating climate change as the trees sequester CO2. Wangare says: “Thanks Toshiba and CO2balance for this great contribution to my family and community. I have seen so many changes here in my life but now I feel confident for the next generation, knowing that the forest can be protected and that we can beautify the place again and create clean air by planting trees."

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