Helping a township
June 8, 2010
Project goal: Providing huts with solar-powered boilers, insulation and electricity
Size: 2,309 houses in the Khayelitsha township have so far been outfitted
Investment: Around 33 million Rand (3.5 million Euros)
Carbon savings: 6,000 tons so far
Side effect: Influenza and tuberculosis cases have been drastically reduced
More than a million people live in the Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa. Many are bitterly poor and lack access to warm water. They use oil or wood to heat their homes. This is where the climate project "Kuyasa" was set up. It’s the first in the world to get the so-called "Gold Standard," a quality certification scheme for carbon offsetting. The project uses the funds generated from the carbon offset market to finance itself and help an increasing number of people in the township.
A film by Elisabeth Pongratz