Expanding Access to LPG in Haiti Through Microfinance Services

In Haiti, 90% of the population relies on firewood and charcoal for cooking. The poorest spend a large portion of their budgets on these fuels and suffer from harmful. Women are particularly affected because they are in charge of collecting or buying firewood and charcoal and cooking, exposing them to exhaustion and toxic fumes. The practice also leads to significant deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.

LPG (liquefied gas) offers a cleaner alternative for the needs of households and street food vendors, but its adoption is hindered by:
• Limited distribution networks for cooking kits and refilling points.
• Financial constraints that prevent the purchase of gas stoves and refills.

Palmis Enèji (A Haitian social enterprise created by the French NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde) helps fuel-poor populations transition from firewood and charcoal to gas cooking through key activities:

1. Equipment distribution: Provides quality gas stoves, trains distributors and partners to expand distribution networks across urban and semi-urban areas.
2. Financial services: In partnership with MFIs, offers financial solutions (microfinance) to make clean cooking technologies available and affordable for vulnerable households.
3. Training and support: Educates beneficiaries on the safe and efficient use of the equipment and ensures that the beneficiaries do not encounter any difficulties in long-term use.
4. Awareness campaigns: Promotes the benefits of clean cooking through awareness campaigns.

The project has already facilitated access to gas for more than 25,000 households via quality equipment. 

Palmis Enèji not only improves the quality of life for thousands of families but also contributes significantly to sustainable development in Haiti.

Our approach stands out by implementing a local and sustainable distribution system designed to operate independently in the long term, even without the involvement of Entrepreneurs du Monde. All profits are reinvested into the distribution of new stoves.

Project Impacts and Benefits

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being:  3.2 million premature deaths each year are attributable to household air pollution from cooking, lighting, and heating. Gas stoves eliminate harmful smoke emissions. Our latest monitoring survey shows significant improvements: 0% of beneficiaries report burning themselves with the stove (down from 60%), 4% report their children might burn themselves (down from 27%), 1% experience headaches (down from 42%), 0% have eye irritation (down from 51%), and 3% cough (down from 27%).

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy:  Palmis Enèji aims to facilitate the adoption of clean cooking methods by developing and empowering distribution networks for quality equipment and gas refills, and by offering innovative financial services to make these accessible to vulnerable households.

SDG 13 - Climate Action:  More than one billion tons of carbon emissions each year come from burning wood and charcoal to cook, which is ~2% of total global emissions. Using LPG significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to burning wood or charcoal. Since the beginning of the project (2015), over than 124,000 tons of reduced emissions have been certified and more are under certification process.

Certification documents for this project are available in the Gold Standard Impact Registry

Vintages of credits: 2020
N.B.  Individual vintages cannot be selected for purchase. Purchases will include credits from the vintage range stated.