cookstoves, and household biodigester systems have been established with headquarters in Phnom Penh.
12.4.1 Cookstove Case
The New Laos Stove (NLS) project was managed by the French NGO, “Groupe
Energies Renouvelables, Environement et Solidarites” (Geres), Cambodia. The
charcoal stove, designed for urban households but almost equally utilized in rural
communities, has sold over a million units since 1998. Carbon finance from the
voluntary market financed the rull range of the project’s operational costs from
2006 to 2013, when the carbon crediting period closed (Geres 2013).
NLS utilized a low cost technology of improved biomass cookstove, valued at
approximately 5 USD per unit, which is produced in local centers in region of the
country known for artisanal stove production. The project developers used an
“intrinsic revenue model” (Verles 2015), whereby they fund technical workshops
to teach local artisans to execute their design, and then recycle funds from carbon
finance into expanding the program and monitoring the implementation. Within this
model, carbon credits act as a temporary subsidy for the establishment of a longterm national industry and local supply chain (idem). Given the close alignment
between project participation and livelihood incentives, the value chain and the
project structure are impossible to distinguish.
Geres attributes their considerable success in technology distribution to the
strategic use of already existing production and dissemination networks within
Kampong Ch’nang province, the traditional ceramics region of Cambodia. Utilizing
historic production channels also offered monetary benefits: distributors received
the technology on good faith from the producers, pedaling their wares thousands of
miles away from the home factory based on generations of trust. This social aspect
of the distribution system enabled the administrators to avoid financing difficulties
in disseminating the locally produced stoves nationwide. However the emissions
reductions per household serviced are the low, while the breadth of the dissemination and local livelihood index score for local economic gain is the strongest in the
set.
The relatively high Livelihood Index score is derived from Geres’ decision to
train existing ceramics factories to produce their stove model, and they achieved the
transition in production type through frontloading financial incentives for the producers during the training and in the first years of production. By feeding subsidies
to the producers, and not to the consumers, Geres effectively transformed the
cookstove producing region of Kampong Ch’nang into their improved stove
model. Notably, the 35 stove factories that are registered NLS producers are all
locally owned and managed, raising the LI due to the strong presence of managers,
decision makers, and skilled labor positions engendered by the project. Another
advantage to utilizing fully local production and distribution methods is that risk
224
J. Hyman
12.4.1 Cookstove Case
The New Laos Stove (NLS) project was managed by the French NGO, “Groupe
Energies Renouvelables, Environement et Solidarites” (Geres), Cambodia. The
charcoal stove, designed for urban households but almost equally utilized in rural
communities, has sold over a million units since 1998. Carbon finance from the
voluntary market financed the rull range of the project’s operational costs from
2006 to 2013, when the carbon crediting period closed (Geres 2013).
NLS utilized a low cost technology of improved biomass cookstove, valued at
approximately 5 USD per unit, which is produced in local centers in region of the
country known for artisanal stove production. The project developers used an
“intrinsic revenue model” (Verles 2015), whereby they fund technical workshops
to teach local artisans to execute their design, and then recycle funds from carbon
finance into expanding the program and monitoring the implementation. Within this
model, carbon credits act as a temporary subsidy for the establishment of a longterm national industry and local supply chain (idem). Given the close alignment
between project participation and livelihood incentives, the value chain and the
project structure are impossible to distinguish.
Geres attributes their considerable success in technology distribution to the
strategic use of already existing production and dissemination networks within
Kampong Ch’nang province, the traditional ceramics region of Cambodia. Utilizing
historic production channels also offered monetary benefits: distributors received
the technology on good faith from the producers, pedaling their wares thousands of
miles away from the home factory based on generations of trust. This social aspect
of the distribution system enabled the administrators to avoid financing difficulties
in disseminating the locally produced stoves nationwide. However the emissions
reductions per household serviced are the low, while the breadth of the dissemination and local livelihood index score for local economic gain is the strongest in the
set.
The relatively high Livelihood Index score is derived from Geres’ decision to
train existing ceramics factories to produce their stove model, and they achieved the
transition in production type through frontloading financial incentives for the producers during the training and in the first years of production. By feeding subsidies
to the producers, and not to the consumers, Geres effectively transformed the
cookstove producing region of Kampong Ch’nang into their improved stove
model. Notably, the 35 stove factories that are registered NLS producers are all
locally owned and managed, raising the LI due to the strong presence of managers,
decision makers, and skilled labor positions engendered by the project. Another
advantage to utilizing fully local production and distribution methods is that risk
224
J. Hyman