Spark+ Africa, an impact investment fund, has announced a $3.5 million commitment to finance the distribution of improved cookstoves to reduce household carbon emissions in rural Zambia and help advance the clean cooking movement in Africa.
Based in Kenya, the fund is a partnership between the Swiss investment company Enabling Qapital and the Netherlands-based Stichting Modern Cooking Foundation and will support delivery by the Mauritius subsidiary of The African Stove Company (TASC) of 90,000 cookstoves built by BURN Manufacturing. Old stoves will be replaced with new ones that use biomass, electricity, or liquefied petroleum gas as their energy source and are cheaper to operate while also reducing harmful pollution and improving community health.
An estimated 900 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to clean cooking technologies, spending an added $35 billion annually on expensive, unhealthy, and polluting open fires, charcoal, and kerosene. According to Spark+ Africa, a private-sector investment of $2.6 billion across the continent would effectively mitigate the related environmental, economic, and health costs borne directly by underserved remote communities that lack access to cleaner technologies.
“TASC prides itself on implementing high-quality carbon projects with a focus on integrity and transparency, said TASC chief executive Alick McIntosh. “We are very excited about…the significant impact this project will have on the lives of many Zambians.”
(Photo credit: Getty Images/Poco BW)
Source link : https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/spark-africa-funds-3.5-million-for-clean-cooking-stoves-in-zambia
Author :
Publish date : 2023-06-23 07:52:29
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.