An international effort to supply developing countries with low-pollution cookstoves fell short. Efforts failed to consider to what degree their new stoves really solved the problem—and whether or not people would actually use them.

'Unclean' cooking - rudimentary, open-fire cooking practiced by millions of people around the world - is one of the leading causes of respiratory disease and death, especially for women, in developing countries; it is also a serious contributor to deforestation, air pollution, and continued poverty (due to the cost of fuel). But a solution has been gaining momentum in Malawi with help from the UN, in the form of clean, more efficient cookstoves that not only emit less smoke, but use less fuel and reduce the risk of burns to family members.

It's been proven within the cookstove industry that providing free cleaner-energy stoves to those cooking with traditional stoves or over open flame does not work as planned. Inyenyeri, a Rwandan cookstove company however, is adding a twist to that method by giving away their cookstoves that reduce emissions by 98 to 99 percent compared to wood or charcoal stoves for free, as long as the consumer agrees to buying their wood fuel pellets.

In much of Malawi, the electrical grid is highly unreliable and the cost of fuels like petroleum prohibitive, forcing most families to rely on the black market for illegally-sourced charcoal and leading to heavy deforestation. But some NGOs are tackling the issue with a grassroots approach: rather than relying on the army to punish illegal logging, they are helping women provide cleaner, more efficient cookstoves to their communities - reducing the amount of fuel burned as well as toxic smoke from open fires.

Three women have embraced the use of solar technology to become clean energy entrepreneurs. They are helping bring light, efficient cookstoves, and energy to their communities, while reducing carbon emissions and empowering other women along the way.