Getting Numbers Right: Revisiting Woodfuel Sustainability in the Developing World

This research paper evaluates the effectiveness of woodfuel carbon-offset projects in reducing deforestation and emissions, finding that actual emission reductions are significantly lower than project expectations.

• The paper finds that emission reductions from 286 carbon-offset projects across 51 countries are between 57 and 81 MtCO2e, which is 41% to 59% lower than the expected 138 MtCO2e.
• The authors identify woodfuel 'hotspots' where interventions are more likely to reduce forest degradation or deforestation, specifically in South Asia and East, West, and Southern Africa, where approximately 300 million people experience acute woodfuel scarcity.
• The success of the transition to sustainable energy depends on billions of people adopting cleaner cooking technologies to improve air quality, reduce short-lived climate pollutants, and decrease deforestation, though the latter is dependent on the level of reliance on 'non-renewable biomass' (NRB).

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2017). Getting Numbers Right: Revisiting Woodfuel Sustainability in the Developing World. https://www.sei.org/publications/getting-numbers-right-revisiting-woodfuel-sustainability-developing-world/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Getting Numbers Right: Revisiting Woodfuel Sustainability in the Developing World. 2017. https://www.sei.org/publications/getting-numbers-right-revisiting-woodfuel-sustainability-developing-world/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Getting Numbers Right: Revisiting Woodfuel Sustainability in the Developing World |date=27 October 2017 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/getting-numbers-right-revisiting-woodfuel-sustainability-developing-world/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2017getting, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Getting Numbers Right: Revisiting Woodfuel Sustainability in the Developing World}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2017}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/getting-numbers-right-revisiting-woodfuel-sustainability-developing-world/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }