However, the country is at risk of losing all its forests if deforestation in Uganda continues at its  present rate there would be no forests left in 40 years . Under the growth and  development scenario in 2015, Uganda’s total emissions were projected at 77,381 Gg CO2 eq  (77.3MtCO2eq/yr) also known as business as usual scenario. It is envisaged that implementation  of prioritized measures in energy supply, forestry and wetlands will result into cumulative impact  of approximately 22% reduction of overall national emissions in 20302. It should be noted that in  2012, total emissions were estimated at 36.5 Mt CO2eq/yr in 2000  .

It is against this backdrop that EBAFOSA Uganda Leveraged EBA and clean energy to create climate  action enterprises. This work has leveraged complementarity between EBA-driven agriculture with  clean energy to unlock enterprises that scale both EBA and clean energy. In Uganda- Buganda  Kingdom, cassava value chain is being enhanced by retooling3 urban youths and rural women skills to make quality briquettes which are dried using solar dryers, which are more efficient and  effective than open sun-drying. EBAFOSA Uganda has linked cassava famers mainly women to solar  drying centers, where women use the waste from cassava and other agricultural waste to make  quality briquette for their home use and commercial purposes. In particular, Sub-Sahara Africa  and Uganda’s energy sector is dominated by biomass, which contributes over 90% of the total  expendable energy4 and herein firewood and charcoal contribute more than 85%. The main use  of biomass energy is cooking and or heating either as firewood or charcoal majorly by local  households. EBAFOSA is promoting briquettes use and clean cook stove in Buganda Kingdom to  help develop and drastically reduce people’s dependence on firewood for cooking and provide  employment to urban youth. This is scaling use of solar solutions and promoting climate  action enterprises as called for in Uganda NDCs but from an enterprise dimension that  ensures durability. 

Biomass is the predominant type of energy used in Uganda, accounting for 94% of the total energy  consumption in the country6. Charcoal is mainly used in the urban areas while firewood, agro residues and wood wastes are widely used in the rural areas. Firewood is used mainly on three stone fires in rural households and in food preparation by commercial vendors in urban areas. Through the waste recovery to domestic energy, this work is directly implementing Uganda’s NDCs objectives. Specifically, those on reversing deforestation towards increasing forest cover to 21%  and increasing cooing energy efficiency to 40% over traditional cooking. This is being achieved  through the increased investment in fuel briquettes – a key source of efficient & sustainable biomass highlighted in the NDCs. 

This work also enhances achievement of Uganda’s Renewable Energy policy by providing  affordable, efficient domestic fuel briquettes as alternatives to charcoal and firewood use.  Specifically, the policy aims to reduce consumption of both wood and charcoal as strategic to  combat both indoor pollution as well as deforestation.  

Economically, waste recovery to briquettes not only taps into a ready market with over 80% to  90% of Uganda’s population dependent on biomass, but stands to create up to 20,000 alternative  jobs and over $60 million contribution to GDP by creative viable and affordable alternatives to  charcoal and firewood. The briquettes made in a system thinking approach – where the waste  feed-stock material is sourced directly from the by-product of cassava value addition, and final  drying done efficiently using solar dryers, means reduced raw material costs and high quality  briquettes at the end of the drying process. This coupled with local labour and expertise makes  these briquettes cheaper or equivalent priced to charcoal. In addition, their longevity of burn,  higher energy values and enhanced burning efficiency means less of the briquettes are used  compared to charcoal and firewood for an equivalent cookery event. 

The approach used to implement these actions was Innovative Volunteerism. Where actors of  diverse skills were convened and guided to improve and refine their diverse skills and adapt them  to collaborate mutually in developing the fuel briquettes among other solutions. They were then  guided to deploy those skills by working directly with communities to ensure impact at the 90% of households use firewood, charcoal for cooking.

UNEP provided the overall technical backstopping from a knowledge dimension  of also ensuring work aligns with Uganda national development and climate change priorities. 

Intervention  

• Youth Skills Retooling; this work trained youth to make charcoal briquettes. 10 youth in  Kayanja village were trained. These trainings were undertaken under the EBAFOSA Uganda Innovations centre called the Africa Youth Agro industrialization Academy  (AYAIAcademy).
• Training youth to fabricate briquettes machines for both commercial and rural use; this work managed to train youth to fabricate an extruder which can produce 200 briquettes  at a go. This ongoing work is still investing in redesigning and innovating those machines and 10 simple briquettes machines for rural women have been innovated and fabricated  for women to use.
• Training women groups to make Fuel briquettes; this work has train two women groups consisting of 12 women in Nakisunga and 12 in Ggera farmers cluster respectively to make quality briquettes using cassava waste, clay, ash, and cassava porridge.
• Using solar drying technology to fasten the drying of charcoal briquettes; this work trained  the youth to fabricate solar dryers which are used to dry briquettes. Women in Nakisunga  sub county farming cluster received training of making briquettes.

Impacts 

• Adoption of Fuel briquettes usage; trainees have started to use clean fuel briquettes for  both domestic and commercial use. Since most rural areas are mushrooming into small  urban centre, they no longer have firewood or it is expensive to prepare a meal, most of  the families have resorted to use of charcoal briquettes for cooking and baking.
• User Acceptability: families have started using briquettes instead of firewood, right now  briquettes are cheaper and durable when cooking. In Kayanja village- Mukono district families have restored to use of fuel briquettes to enable saving and good health because  they produce no smoke when cooking.
• Alternative source of fuel. Briquettes have substituted wood fuel in some of families we  have sold to the EBA-Briquettes, families are now able to invest in clean energy willingly.
• Employment opportunity for women and youth; this work trained youth and women during COVID-19 pandemic to make charcoal briquettes, to fabricate machines which are  used in making briquettes awareness training on the importance of briquettes, why we  should reduce using wood fuel to cook.

Read the full reports from the attached documents to see more details and next course of action.

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