Improved Cookstoves
in Nepal


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The cookstove projects in Nepal is a significant step towards ensuring that the vast numbers of rural population around the world have access to clean energy. More than 3 billion people cook food and heat water using open fires and inefficient stoves fuelled by biomass. Their dependence on these fuel types and inefficient cookstoves have many social and environmental impacts including indoor air pollution leading to ill-health, an increase in the greenhouse gas emissions and a constant pressure on the forests. The projects involve the distribution of biomass-based improved cookstoves to rural households and addresses the issue of limited or no access to clean energy by promoting widespread adoption of efficient cookstoves in households across Nepal. These stoves burn fuel more efficiently and are designed to reduce smoke, particulate matter and other gaseous emissions, thus creating cleaner indoor air for women and children. Due to their higher thermal efficiency relative to traditional stoves, these improved stoves reduce the amount of biomass fuel consumption for meeting similar thermal energy needs.


from using efficient stoves for cooking

Employment generation

for the local population

470,000 tCO2

carbon benefit over 10 years through CDM project

Women administered micro finance

institutions created

More than 25,000

stoves installed

Carbon Benefit

more than 400,000 tCO2 carbon benefit through CDM project and around 44,000 tCO2 benefit through Gold Standard VER

Background of Project

Set in the rural areas of mountainous Nepal which continues to face high levels of poverty, increased population density and lack of access to energy which contributes to its low economic development. Typically, across rural Nepal, the three-stone traditional cookstoves fuelled by biomass are still used for cooking and heating needs.

The Project

The projects have disseminated high efficiency biomass-fired cookstoves to replace the existing traditional cookstoves in beneficiary households. The cook stoves will be constructed by local partners thus creating local employment opportunities. The stoves are designed to increase heat transfer to the cooking pot while being suitable for traditional utensils and cooking habits of people in Nepal. So far, more than 20,000 cookstoves have been installed through our projects, and the plan is to install at least 50,000 more.

The Benefits

The benefits to the environment include reduction in biomass consumption and emission of greenhouse gases, and conservation of forest and biodiversity. The local population benefits from employment creation and enhancement of technical skills during the production and installation of the cook stoves. With these smokeless stoves in their homes, women and children experience better indoor air quality and fewer incidences of smoke and fire-related injuries. Typically in rural areas, women spend a lot of their time collecting wood for cooking; with the improved cook stoves, the daily drudgery of women is reduced drastically.