Country: Mexico

School/ organization: Instituto Escuela del Sur

Delegation leader/ teacher: José Antonio López Tercero Caamaño

Students: Emiliano Cruz Ramírez, Pablo Shamash Hernández Uribe, Kevin Portugal Vela Morales, Rafael Sánchez Vidal.

Partner organization: ENGIE Mexico

Project title: Saving Stoves

The purpose of this project is to present a solution to the serious deforestation and CO2 emissions in Mexico. According to the Institute of Geography of UNAM, deforestation in the country is very intense and places us in the 5th place worldwide, losing 500 thousand hectares of forests and annual jungle. This puts at risk of extinction a great variety of plants, animals, and communities that might try to take care of their environment.

Mexico is the 2nd country in America with the highest use of fuels per every 100 inhabitants. Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes also have an impact on deforestation, since carbon -which is naturally removed from the atmosphere- is stored in the oceans and soil generating plants. These areas, known as carbon "sinks", release it when there is logging, either deliberately or accidentally, thus promoting even more carbon emissions.

Faced with this problem, a cost-saving and inexpensive stove is presented as a solution that decreases carbon emissions by reducing the use of firewood for cooking. This stove works with bricks, mud and sand, all materials that allow heat to be retained and released slowly via tunnels or pipes through which hot air flows and connect the combustion chamber with the burners and the chimney, to finally release it. This operation greatly reduces carbon emissions produced by cooking and prevents deforestation, thus achieving our main objective: lower carbon emissions in the atmosphere.