Great!

As about half of the Ethiopian and Kenyan residents are not connected to the electricity grid; they have to rely on the sun as light source. This is limited as days are short in tropical countries. Up to now, kerosene lamps have been the primary light source to combat darkness. However, they cause a lot of soot, which is harmful both to health and the climate. If people want to stay inside in the evening, they are exposed to soot particles for many hours.

The project is supported by the campaign "Light for Education". With this campaign, the foundation Solarenergie establishes a local solar trade that is self-sustaining. Since 2008, ten solar centres have already been founded in Ethiopia and Kenya, and around 100 solar technicians have been trained. This not only creates jobs, but alleviates poverty as well as climate-damaging CO₂. The CLIMATE BET supports this great project.

With its partner foundation Solar Energy, myclimate would like to change this. They equip households with financially affordable solar home systems. The photovoltaic cells on the house roofs supply LED lamps with electricity and replace the harmful kerosene lamps. The sunlight-operated LEDs save around 14,000 tons of CO₂ compared with kerosene-fired lamps.

myclimate Germany is a non-profit offset provider and a 100% subsidiary of the myclimate foundation in Switzerland. myclimate implements a wide range of effective carbon offset projects: from the expansion of renewable energies to efficiency technologies and reforestation measures. With a diverse offering of services, including consulting, myclimate supports companies in reducing their carbon footprint strategically and sustainably. myclimate is also involved in the area of climate protection education. With the help of close partnerships, the non-profit climate protection organisation inspires thousands of people of all ages to become active in climate protection themselves. In the project "Solar Panels for Education and Quality of Life", myclimate works together with the foundation Solarenergie, based in Freiburg.

People in the southern province of Rwanda usually cook on open fires with wood or coal. However, the firewood consumption is a burden to the tree population as well as the local nature in general. Furthermore, having to search for raw materials consumes a lot of time and energy. The burning of coal and wood entails intensive smoke emissions that are harmful to the environment and people. After all, the fireplaces are often located inside the houses. Mainly women and children are exposed to indoor pollution - a great strain on the respiratory tract.

The energy-efficient cooking stoves also benefit the environment. Households need 45% fewer firewood and coal resources to use the environmentally friendly alternative. 6,000 of the most impoverished families will receive such a stove. Together, these families save around 25,000 tons of CO₂ per year. And their health risk is dramatically reduced. In addition, they will receive water filters along with their cooking stoves, enabling them to improve their drinking water. The CLIMATE BET supports this impactful project.

The Klima-Kollekte aims to solve these problems with energy-efficient stoves. The organization "Rural Development Interdiocesan Service" (RDIS) is responsible for the on-site implementation of the project. The local population is closely involved: Local cooperatives build the cooking stoves. Local experts set them up and maintain them together with the local families participating in the project. The cooking stoves thus actively contribute to poverty reduction in the southern province of Rwanda. 

Klima-Kollekte is a non-profit limited liability company, which was founded in 2011 as a carbon emission compensation fund of Christian churches. The compensation payments are invested explicitly in projects located in developing and emerging countries. They reduce local poverty by empowering women, protecting health, and providing additional income while also reducing carbon emissions. The scientific monitoring is carried out by the Research Institute of the Evangelical Studies Association (Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft e.V.  FEST). The Rwanda project is carried out together with "Rural Development Interdiocesan Service" (RDIS); an organisation that promotes sustainable development in four dioceses of the Anglican Church of Rwanda: Butare, Cyangugu, Kigeme, and Shyogwe. Local parishioners are mobilized to develop their community and thus to lift themselves out of poverty.

While large areas of the Kibale National Park in Western Uganda have been cleared providing the ideal conditions for meter-high elephant grass, it has left poor conditions for the rainforest vegetation that formerly dominated the region. The native rainforest vegetation, however, binds much more carbon dioxide than the elephant grass. Therefore, PRIMAKLIMA reforests the area – in collaboration with the local population. The reforested vegetation removes around 4.5 million tons of CO₂ per year from the atmosphere over the entire project period of 60 years. At the same time, the forests contribute to biodiversity. Taking care of the young trees and effective fire protection are important aspects of the project’s success.

Due to the high social value for the inhabitants of the region, the project enjoys a very high level of acceptance. They are all ambassadors of the forest and thus foundation for its long-term protection

For local people, the project offers various training and work opportunities. Fair incomes create new perspectives in a region characterized by poverty. Many families in the surrounding area are self-reliant small hold farmers. Because elephants often destroy their fields, the project also develops suitable protection measures. For instance, project funds have financed elephant protection trenches. Another approach is to plant tea plants on the Park’s borders as wild animals dislike the taste of the plants’ leaves.  

Forests play a crucial role in climate protection as CO₂-storage and CO₂-sinks. PRIMAKLIMA has therefore been supporting forest projects on four continents as a non-profit association for almost 30 years. In addition to climate protection and nature conservation, PRIMAKLIMA also aims for social and economic co-benefits. The participation of the local population is an integral part of the reforestation concept of PRIMAKLIMA.

In rural Nepal, wood is the most essential energy source, but the resulting forest degradation has wide-ranging consequences. Landslides resulting from increased erosion levels are a consequence of forest degradation, because tree roots are important for soil stability, especially so in mountain areas. The Nepalese people use wood for cooking and heating – a health risk, especially for women and children who spend much time inside. Burning the wood produces smoke, which seriously harms the respiratory tract.

The small biogas plants thus improve the families' health, provide a solution against soil erosion, and create jobs for the construction and maintenance of the plants. They also have a superior climate balance. Together, families can save a total of 480,000 tons of carbon emissions per year. To make the biogas plants affordable, the project partner AEPC provides a nationwide subsidy programme. It further provides access to an extensive network of microfinance institutions, which cover 80% of the plants' financing.

Under the "Biogas Support Programme"- Nepal (BSP-Nepal), the project participants build small biogas plants for households engaged in livestock farming. The constant production of manure is a prerequisite for operating a biogas plant. When the manure ferments, gas is produced and directly connected to the families' gas cookers via pipes. Also, toilets can be connected to the systemThe residues from the plant that are no longer suitable for gas production, can be used as fertiliser for the field. The majority of people in rural Nepal are self-reliant small-hold farmers and depend on good harvest yields.

atmosfair gGmbH is a non-profit climate protection organisation founded in 2004 and based in Berlin. The sole shareholder of atmosfair is the foundation Zukunftsfähigkeit. atmosfair develops and operates climate protection projects in the global south by expanding renewable energies and energy efficiency technologies. In addition, it advises and accompanies institutions and companies on the transformation path towards decarbonised economies and offers environmentally conscious people the opportunity to compensate for unavoidable CO₂. The central topic of atmosfair is the increasing burden of air traffic on the global climate. The leading organisation for the project "Small biogas plants in Nepal" is the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC). The governmental organisation was established in 1996 under the Nepalese Ministry of Science and Technology. Its main objective is to develop and disseminate renewable energy in Nepal.

Palm oil plantations and illegal logging have left scorched earth on Borneo. Fairventures has therefore launched the project "One Million Trees for Borneo" with the support of the Federal Environment Ministry of Germany in 2014. In 5 years, over 1 million trees have been planted. In addition to absorbing a lot of CO₂, the project has given over 1,000 farmers an economic perspective for the future. If the local population can generate sustainable income from the forest, they have an incentive to protect it

The planting of the first million trees was just the beginning. Now Fairventures aims to successfully replicate and amplify the pilot project and put an end to palm oil farming and slash-and-burn clearing of forests. Fairventures has therefore set itself a new goal: 100 million trees will be planted on destroyed areas. This corresponds to an additional 2 million tons of absorbed CO₂. The CLIMATE BET supports Fairventures in achieving this ambitious goal.

The project is based on a modern agroforestry concept with fast growing pioneer trees. It only takes the trees between 2 to 3 years to grow a closed leaf cover. The cultivation of catch crops such as fruit, vegetables, peanuts, or cocoa generates quick additional income. Adapted and diverse plant species increase soil quality and biodiversity.

This reforestation project is complemented by an innovative project, certified to high standards, for the recovery of CO₂ from the atmosphere using biochar from residues. The biochar is produced in France, Austria and Germany in modern pyrolysis plants in accordance with EBC guidelines. It is used in agriculture and landscaping, among other things, as an additive in stable litter, animal feed, slurry or compost and is fully documented by Carbonfuture. This ensures that the carbon sequestration sold can also be guaranteed over 100 years. 

Within the European Union (EU), particularly energy-intensive industries, may only emit a pre-determined amount of CO₂. The respective upper limit is set by the European Commission. It decreases from year to year in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the long term. 
 

Compensators* are now making the certificates available to everyone , in other words, to you and me. This is how it works: Compensators* buy up pollution certificates with the help of donations. They do so not in order to use the associated right to emit, but instead to permanently withhold the purchased certificates from carbon markets. This means that the industry has fewer certificates at its disposal. As such, industry can emit less and must therefore reduce their emissions even more. Because demand and supply determine the price of the allowances – in fact, your donation to Compensators* would indeed increase the demand for allowances – they become more expensive for industry. So not only would your donation help avoid CO₂, but it would also increase the incentive to invest in climate-friendly technologies.

To make it easier to regulate the industries' emissions, the EU has created the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Companies that (have to) participate in the EU ETS need pollution allowances (EUAs - European Emission Allowances) in order to emit CO₂. These allowances are either allocated to companies for free, auctioned, or bought on the secondary market exchanges. Each certificate gives its holder the right to emit exactly 1 ton of CO_2.

In 2006, scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research founded the non-profit association Compensators* e.V. In contrast to other compensation service providers, the Compensators* approach aims to initiate CO₂ reductions in Europe itself. To this end, the association buys pollution rights from the European Emissions Trading Scheme, thereby reducing the maximum amount of CO₂ that European companies are allowed to emit.