GERES: The Cookstove That Cut Cambodia's Firewood Use by a Fifth

Starting in 1997, the French NGO GERES worked with Cambodian stove producers to design and scale up the New Lao Stove, an improved charcoal cookstove that uses about 22% less wood and charcoal than traditional models while burning more cleanly. Rather than importing stoves, GERES built a private-sector supply chain of local potters and metalworkers, selling more than 3.6 million improved cookstoves across the country between 1997 and 2016. Between 2003 and 2013 alone, the stoves saved an estimated 1.95 million tonnes of wood and avoided roughly 2.9 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, while cutting average household fuel spending and reducing pressure on Cambodia's shrinking forests.