A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LIFE CYCLE GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL OF CHARCOAL STOVE OPTIONS IN HAITI

Abstract

This study provides estimates and a comparative assertion on the life cycle global warming potential (GWP) impacts of three product systems: 1) traditional Haiti charcoal stove, 2) efficient charcoal stove manufactured in Haiti (Recho Mirak), and 3) imported efficient charcoal stove. Results indicate that efficient charcoal stoves, both local and imported, are better than traditional designs in terms of life cycle GWP impact. The traditional stove has the highest GWP per cooking-year of 5.6 tons CO2e on average; this is over 20% greater than the 4.3 tons CO2e per cooking-year for both local and imported efficient stove products. Replacing a traditional stove, thus, results in reduction in emissions of about 1.3 tons CO2e per year. Charcoal production and burning account for over 99% of the GWP impacts for the three product systems. Meanwhile, stove material and stove origin (i.e., local versus imported) contribute merely 0.1% of GWP impact for all three products. Imported efficient stoves would have less GWP than local efficient stoves if the former’s charcoal use efficiency is at least equal to that of the latter. Furthermore, the parameters that have the greatest impact on the GWP of all product systems are frequency of cooking and cooking charcoal use intensity.

Keywords: Life cycle analysis, charcoal stoves