Mustang to pilot clean heating solutions as Nepal tackles black carbon emissions

Photo credit: Christoph_Oberlack

Kathmandu, 10 August 2026 – Across Nepal’s high mountain regions, many families still rely on firewood and other biomass fuels to keep warm during long and harsh winters. While this remains one of the few affordable options for many households, it also exposes families to indoor air pollution and contributes to black carbon emissions that accelerate the melting of snow and ice in the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

To address this challenge, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), in partnership with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) and Practical Action Nepal, has launched the Harnessing Renewable Energy for Clean Heating in the Himalaya (HEARTH) project, with support from the Clean Air Fund.

The project will work with communities in Mustang to identify, test and promote clean heating technologies that can provide reliable warmth without relying on traditional biomass fuels. It aims to generate practical evidence on what works in the high-altitude environments and support efforts to make the clean heating more accessible and affordable for mountain households and institutions.

For families living in Nepal’s mountains, cleaner heating could mean warmer homes with less smoke, improved indoor air quality, reduced dependence on firewood, and lower pressure on local forests. The project will also contribute to efforts to reduce black carbon emissions, a major short-lived climate pollutant that affects air quality and contributes to glacier and snow melt across the region.

“People living in the mountains face some of the harshest winters in Nepal, yet many households still rely on firewood to keep warm,” said Pema Gyamtsho, Director General at ICIMOD. “This affects both their health and the fragile mountain environment. By working with communities to identify cleaner heating options, we hope to demonstrate that staying warm, protecting health, and reducing climate-warming emissions can go hand in hand.”

“AEPC considers the HEARTH Project a strategic opportunity to generate evidence that will inform future policies, financing mechanisms, and market development for clean, non-biomass heating solutions in Nepal’s high-altitude regions,” said Nawaraj Dhakal, Executive Director of AEPC. “The experiences and lessons from the Mustang pilot will provide valuable insights into identifying heating technologies that are technically feasible, economically viable, and socially acceptable. These findings will support Nepal’s energy transition by promoting climate resilience, strengthening energy security, reducing dependence on traditional biomass, and improving the quality of life of mountain communities.”

Mr. Dhakal also emphasized the need for the HEARTH Project to incorporate a comprehensive sustainability and post-project support strategy.

Despite significant progress in expanding access to electricity across Nepal, clean heating remains a major gap in the energy transition of mountain regions. High upfront and operational costs, limited availability of suitable technologies and after sales service and challenging climatic conditions continue to constrain adoption.

Through HEARTH, partners will assess heating needs in home and public institutions, demonstrate suitable technologies, monitor impacts on indoor air quality and black carbon emissions, strengthen local technical capacity, and engage suppliers, financial institutions, and policymakers to support longer-term uptake.

There is no just transition without mountain clean heating. Nepal has achieved 99% electricity access, yet 80% of rural households still rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, leaving the intense, cold-weather heating demands of high-altitude mountain regions dangerously neglected.

ICIMOD is closing this critical gap by supporting scaling of market-ready, non-biomass space heating across Nepal’s high-altitude areas. By replacing traditional fuels with clean electric and thermal heating, this project aims to boosts use of local renewable energy, reduce black carbon emissions and indoor air pollution for the mountain communities.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Neraz Tuladhar (Raz), Media Officer
Email: media@icimod.org