Climate Pal | EcoAct

Our Goal: Improve rural Kenyan families’ lives and protect the environment

Climate Pal is responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of improved cookstoves in rural Kenya. Its objectives are fighting climate change, promoting environmental conservation and providing access to socio-economic benefits in local communities.

The Hifadhi-Livelihoods project provides improved cookstoves for local families: a modern cook stove that reduces the use of wood, creates less smoke than traditional cooking methods, and has a positive impact on the health of those spending the most time at home – often women and children. Through a partnership with the Livelihoods Carbon Fund, 120,000 families in the Embu District in central Kenya will receive new cookstoves, and 60,000 have already been distributed.

Hifadhi, in kiswahili (the most spoken language in Eastern Africa), means “preserve” or “keep”.

In kiswahili “tuifadhi mazingira yetu” means “we preserve our environment”.

Climate Pal’s improved cookstoves projects deliver:

Reduced consumption of wood leading to decreased deforestation and preservation of biodiversity in the region: 2,400 hectaresof forest preserved.
Reforestation efforts: 1 million new trees have been planted.
Reduced need for wood means that women and children have more time for other activities such as education, community leadership, and entrepreneurship.
Improved cookstoves that generate much less GHG emissions than the three-stone traditional cooking method: 3.5 million tons of CO2 will be avoided.
Improved healthin the home: the absence of cooking smoke reduces the rate of respiratory and other smoke-related illnesses.
Job opportunities in the local economy: 300 direct and indirect jobs created so far.

Kenya has an extremely high rate of deforestation, losing approximately 50,000 hectares of tropical forest a year. This is equivalent to 10 football fields per hour! The major challenge for Kenyans is the tightly woven relationship between the population, energy needs, health and deforestation.

Kenneth Mwenda, Project Manager at Climate Pal, is from Embu County in Kenya and understands these challenges only too well. Through his work at Climate Pal he is dedicated to helping tackle the social and environmental challenges through the development of improved cookstoves projects like the Hifadhi-Livelihoods project.