Meet Sagnin Nwurba. He lives in Nabu in the Nkwanta North district in the Volta region of Ghana, which has no electricity. He would like to purchase a home solar lantern to light his room at night, and to charge his mobile phone. He has been using kerosene lanterns to light his house over the years, which he complains is not a reliable source of light. He also travels a long distance to get his phone charged. He believes the system will be of great help to him and his entire family. He is married with four children.
Today, I loaned him $45 so he can purchase a home solar lantern. But first maybe I need to back up and explain.
A few months ago, I noticed on my Facebook feed that my friend Dwayne had made a few microfinance loans through kiva.org. For those of you not familiar with the concept, microfinance or microcredit is a way to make small sums of capital available to people who do not have access to standard banking services. These small loans can enable people to improve their lives in many different ways. Kiva works as a way to bring lenders and borrowers together. They post loan requests (usually for amounts less than $1000) and members fill those loans, usually in increments of $25. The loans are distributed by local micro-finance institutions that fund their operations through fees and interest, while Kiva is funded largely by donations from lenders. The loan is paid back over a period normally between 6 and 18 months, and the lender can then withdraw their money or use it to make another loan.
In the last month I have made $25 contributions to 5 loans via Kiva. These have all been loans for the purpose of allowing the recipients to continue their education or to send their children to school. (While this blog is about climate change, eduction is also a cause that is very close to my heart.) A few days ago, Kiva added a feature whereby they tag certain loans as “green”. I was very excited, as that was exactly what I had been hoping to see when I first visited the site. I eagerly started browsing through the “green” loan requests. The first one was from a person who wanted to buy a car to allow him to expand his business. I’m not sure how that qualifies as “green”.
Disappointed, I went looking for another microfinance site that might have more of what I was looking for. What I found exceeded even my most optimistic expectations. What I found was a site called Energy in Common (www.energyincommon.org). Their goal is to use microfinance to fight poverty and climate change at the same time. Each loan listing includes the estimated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that should result from the project. Of course, the borrowers aren’t thinking about climate change, they are simply thinking about improving their lives. I doubt Sagnin Nwurba is motivated by the 100 kg /year reduction in CO2 emissions he will achieve by switching from kerosene to solar lighting. He is interested in having a reliable source of light that is less expensive than kerosene. My very small $45 loan will improve the lives of Sagnin and his family, significantly reduce their carbon emissions, and in 3 months I will have that money back to loan again.
Personal Climate Change 