Background
Addressing deforestation, forest degradation, and the health impacts of biomass cooking is a priority of the Central African Republic. This issue is reflected in national planning documents, such as the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), which promote the use of improved cookstoves. However, despite the national emphasis on these issues, deforestation in CAR has continued at a steady pace.
According to World Bank data, forest cover in CAR decreased from 36.8% to 35.8% between 2000 and 2020. Promoting improved cookstoves can help reverse this trend by reducing the demand for wood and other biofuels for cooking, and by mitigating the risk of cooking fires escalating into larger forest fires during the dry season.
Despite increased government attention, progress has been minimal, and the availability of improved stoves remains limited, as they are typically imported from other countries in the region.
CTCN support
With the support of the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), increasing access to clean cooking technologies in the Central African Republic (CAR) will help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions caused by traditional cooking methods. Additionally, CTCN support will promote climate change adaptation by enhancing the resilience of CAR's population, leading to improved health and well-being.
By leveraging the expertise of the CTCN and its network, the Central African Republic's Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development will collaborate with the private sector to produce a prototype solar cooker. This initiative will reduce the risks associated with establishing manufacturing capacity and, through a small pilot project distributing subsidized solar stoves, ensure that user feedback, local food preferences, and contextual factors are integrated into the solar stove manufacturing process.
Expected outcome
The overall objective of the technical assistance is to establish an understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with increasing the use of renewable solar energy for cooking in the Central African Republic (CAR) and to develop the capacity for local manufacturing of solar cookers to reduce dependence on wood, charcoal, and other biomass for cooking.
Specifically, the objectives include evaluating culturally appropriate solar cooking technologies for use in CAR, developing local manufacturing capacity for the selected technologies, implementing a pilot project in Bangui to understand the impacts and usage patterns of solar cooking appliances, and contributing to a plan to expand the production and use of solar cooking technologies across CAR.
