Back to news
30 Jul 2025 | Press releases

FCDO-backed study in Bhutan shows improved stoves can cut fuelwood use by up to 50%

3 mins Read

70% Complete
Photo credit: Kinley Dorji, JSW School of Law

Improved stoves for space heating tested in Bhutan’s Haa district slash fuelwood use by up to 50%, according to initial findings from a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded action research project implemented by ICIMOD and the Jigme Singye Wangchuck (JSW) School of Law. The research compared traditional methods against Himalayan Rocket Stoves for heating and smokeless mud stoves for livestock feed cooking in Katsho and Uesu Gewogs, revealing significant reductions in PM2.5 and Black Carbon emissions.

Likewise, a household survey conducted in 305 households of Haa and Lingzhi shows that households are increasingly adopting clean energy like LPG, induction and electric cookers, and practicing ‘fuel stacking’. However, firewood continues to be the primary energy source for residential space heating and livestock feed cooking in Haa. In Lingzhi, there is a continued reliance on yak dung almost in equal proportion for residential space heating and other household activities. The use of firewood and yak dung not only exposes women and young children to severe health risks due to long hours of exposure to pollutants in poorly ventilated households but also imposes the drudgery of fuel collection on them.

The findings of this action research align with those of a joint study conducted the Royal Government of Bhutan and UNICEF (2024), which identified household energy use as the largest contributor (32.8%) to air pollution, followed by industry (13.9%), anthropogenic dust (10.6%), agriculture (10.2%), and the energy sector (8.2%).

While these findings are based on a limited number of samples and should be considered preliminary, they highlight the significant potential of improved stove designs in reducing household air pollution associated with space heating and livestock feed preparation. To confirm and build on these results, a broader study involving sampling of a larger number of improved smokeless mud stoves installation is being planned. These early insights point to a valuable opportunity for scalable interventions aimed at improving rural air quality and public health.

ICIMOD’s FCDO project – Himalayan Resilience and Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP) and JSW School of Law are co-organising a national workshop from 4-5 August 2025 in Thimphu to:

Key findings:

Event details

Event title: National consultation workshop on bridging air quality, health equity and clean energy

Date: 4 – 5 August 2025   |   Venue: Thimphu, Bhutan

Link to register: https://forms.office.com/r/rFun4hjW0U

Why attend?


Spokespersons (details provided on request):
Boilerplate

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), based in Kathmandu, Nepal, is an international organisation established in 1983, that is working to make this critical region greener, more inclusive and climate resilient.

The Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP) is an ICIMOD project working to promote Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for socio-ecological resilience, low-carbon economies, and improved air quality in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal, and building on knowledge and learning from China. HI-REAP is a nine-year programme, funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), to transform the lives and livelihoods, and reduce exposure to risks, of millions of people in the region.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Neraz Tuladhar, Media Officer, ICIMOD
Email: media@icimod.org

Sushmita Kunwar, Communications Officer (HI-REAP-FCDO), ICIMOD
Email: Sushmita.Kunwar@icimod.org

9 Dec 2019 Press releases
Scientists rank world’s most important, most threatened mountain water towers

Research provides new insight on mountain glacier–derived water resource systems, impacting up to 1.9 billion people globally December 9, 2019 — ...

29 May 2023 COP28
Mountain communities, climbers and scientists sound alarm from Everest and call for world leaders to decarbonise now

The climate emergency is here for Earth’s tallest mountain, 70 years on from the first ascent, with two-thirds ...

13 Nov 2024 Press releases
THE LEADERS OF HKH COUNTRIES PLEDGE TO STRENGTHEN TIES TO TACKLE CLIMATE CRISIS IN MOUNTAINS

Baku, 13 November 2024  – On the day that scientists warn of ‘extreme’ and mounting economic costs from snow and ice ...

27 Sep 2023 COP28
“Time is running out”— policymakers and experts from world’s tallest cryosphere zone call for ambition and action to save Earth’s snow and ice

Global “ice emergency” is locking in sea level rise that will put huge areas of Dhaka, Karachi, Shanghai, Mumbai ...

16 Nov 2018 Press releases
Resonating call for a mountain alliance for the Hindu Kush Himalaya

The warnings were dire but the response was heartening. Government representatives, policymakers and scientists from the eight Hindu Kush Himalayan ...

9 Mar 2015 Press releases
Narrowing the knowledge gap on glaciers in high mountain Asia

Researchers and students from around the globe met in Kathmandu last week to assemble a more complete picture of glaciers ...

21 Apr 2025 Press releases
Risk of water shortages builds-up as Hindu Kush Himalaya faces 23-year-record-low snow persistence in the third consecutive year of below-normal seasonal snow

According to the latest Snow Update Report, the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region experienced its third consecutive below-normal snow ...

16 Dec 2015 Press releases
Unique international effort to map, monitor and understand landslides and geohazards – Nepal earthquake geohazards

            On 25 April 2015 an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck Nepal near the historic town of Gorkha. The ...