Brief Project Description of GEMS

India faces environmental and energy challenges in rural settings. Most households use energy inefficient, highly polluting, and labor-intensive methods to collect and burn biomass for cooking, heating water, and lighting.

The Grassroots Energy Management Support (GEMS) project aims to reduce the harmful ef ects of domestic biomass usage in rural households and villages by modifying the usage method (e.g., replacing open-pit stoves with Low-Smoke Cooking Stoves) and the energy source (e.g., replacing kerosene and castor oil lamps with solar-powered study lamps) as the first stage of energy transition policies.

The strength of the GEMS project approach is its focus on linking environmental and socio-economic improvements. The energy transition measures reduce pollution while reducing women’s time and ef ort in collecting and preparing biomass. The time saved can be directed towards new income-generating activities.

Thus, energy transition offers a dual upgrade: preserving the environment with lower pollution and enhancing women’s and girls’ health and social welfare in rural India. By framing energy transition as a lifestyle enhancement of the weakest link of society (the rural households, which are routinely ignored in the top-down policies to counteract climate change), GEMS makes it an appealing choice, fostering voluntary adoption.

The GEMS project aims to profoundly impact rural India. With an ambitious target to reach one million individuals across 200,000 households in five years, the project's vision is inexpensive. The financial endeavor totals USD 3,912,602, averaging a modest USD 19.56 per household. The annual amounts required start with a modest USD 195,630 in the first year, peaking at USD 1,589,494 by the fifth year.

The anticipated outcomes are significant: a substantial reduction in pollution and health risks, widespread adoption of cleaner energy solutions, and the empowerment of rural women through new economic opportunities reflecting the depth and breadth of the project's transformative potential.

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Brief Project Description.pdf

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