Title: The Breathing Space Improved Cooking Stoves Programme, India - VPA No. 11 Envirofit URL Source: https://registry.goldstandard.org/projects/details/891 Markdown Content: Description The proposed small scale VPA involves installation and dissemination of improved cook-stoves (ICS) in India. The VPA is the part of the PoA that is a voluntary initiative taken by Envirofit, a non-profit organisation that develops well-engineered technology solutions to improve the living conditions on a global scale with primary emphasis on applications in the developing countries. The VPA is the 10th VPA to be included as part of the PoA referred in A.1 above. Till date 9 VPAs have been already included in the PoA. Envirofit is the coordinating/ managing entity (CME) for the PoA. The energy – efficient stoves in this VPA also known as improved cook stoves (ICS), are designed by a team of experts, scientists and engineers at Envirofit.In the absence of project activity, the traditional inefficient cook stoves, commonly referred to as chulhas, would have been used for cooking – producing substantial GHG emissions due to burning of non renewable biomass. A large portion of the rural population in India is dependent on traditional biomass chulhas. The most commonly used chulhas are made of mud/clay fixed in a kitchen corner with an opening near the floor for fuel and one or two openings on top to place pots. The use of solid biomass fuels (eg. fuel wood) in these inefficient traditional chulhas – while meeting domestic household needs - releases large amounts of particulate matter into the air, thus causing Indoor Air Pollution . The programme, by replacing traditional chulhas, solves the Indoor Air Pollution problem by deploying cleaner and greener ICS in addition to reducing GHG emissions.