Climate and health co-benefits in low-income countries: a case study of carbon financed water filters in Kenya and a call for independent monitoring
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The recent global climate agreement in Paris aims to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while fostering sustainable development and establishes an international trading mechanism to meet this goal. Currently, carbon offset program implementers are allowed to collect their own monitoring data to determine the number of carbon credits to be awarded. OBJECTIVES: We summarize reasons for mandating independent monitoring of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects. In support of our policy recommendations, we describe a case study of a program designed to earn carbon credits by distributing almost one million drinking water filters in rural Kenya to avert the use of fuel for boiling water. We compare results from an assessment conducted by our research team in the program area among households with pregnant women or caregivers in rural villages with low piped water access with the reported program monitoring data and discuss the implications. DISCUSSION: = 14,988) 2.7 years after filter distribution. Although carbon financing could be a financially sustainable approach to scale up water treatment and improve health in low-income settings, these results suggest program effectiveness will remain uncertain in the absence of requiring monitoring data be collected by third-party organizations. CONCLUSION: Independent monitoring should be a key requirement for carbon credit verification in future international carbon trading mechanisms to ensure programs achieve benefits in line with sustainable development goals. Citation: Pickering AJ, Arnold BF, Dentz HN, Colford JM Jr., Null C. 2017. Climate and health co-benefits in low-income countries: a case study of carbon financed water filters in Kenya and a call for independent monitoring. Environ Health Perspect 125:278-283; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP342.
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Filtration systems provided to women were retained by 19 to 31% after a 2-5 years follow-up.
“Filtration systems provided to women were retained by 19 to 31% after a 2-5 years follow-up (Huq et al., 2010;Pickering et al., 2017).”
From A Systematic Review of Water and Gender Interlinkages: Assessing the Intersection With Health (2020) · cites this paper as Pickering et al., 2017
Use of filters corresponded to small improvements in water quality and a minor reduction in the incidence of cholera.
“Similarly, the use of filters corresponded to small improvements in water quality (Huq et al., 2010), and a minor reduction in the incidence of cholera (Pickering et al., 2017).”
From A Systematic Review of Water and Gender Interlinkages: Assessing the Intersection With Health (2020) · cites this paper as Pickering et al., 2017
There remained a significant depreciation in the long-term usage of the interventions.
“However, there remained a significant depreciation in the long-term usage of the interventions (Huq et al., 2010;Pickering et al., 2017).”
From A Systematic Review of Water and Gender Interlinkages: Assessing the Intersection With Health (2020) · cites this paper as Pickering et al., 2017
Issues surrounding long-term adoption reduced the efficacy of WASH interventions.
“WASH infrastructural and educational interventions in general showed promise in reducing inequities in the water-gender and related health outcome; however, issues surrounding long-term adoption reduced efficacy (Huq et al., 2010;Pickering et al., 2017).”
From A Systematic Review of Water and Gender Interlinkages: Assessing the Intersection With Health (2020) · cites this paper as Pickering et al., 2017
WASH infrastructural and educational interventions in general showed promise in reducing inequities in the water-gender and related health outcomes.
“WASH infrastructural and educational interventions in general showed promise in reducing inequities in the water-gender and related health outcome; however, issues surrounding long-term adoption reduced efficacy (Huq et al., 2010;Pickering et al., 2017).”
From A Systematic Review of Water and Gender Interlinkages: Assessing the Intersection With Health (2020) · cites this paper as Pickering et al., 2017
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References 20 · Cited by 29
- Authors
- Pickering, A. J., Arnold, B. F., Dentz, H. N., Colford, J. M., & Null, C.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Innovations for Poverty Action (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pickering, Amy J.
- Venue
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2016-09-16
- Volume
- 125
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 278-283
- ISSN
- 0091-6765 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-9924
- PMC
- PMC5332188
- OpenAlex
- W2519562311
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 5.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 469 d)
- Locations
- Environmental Health Perspectives (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Sustainable Development
- Keywords
- carbon credits, carbon finance, emissions trading, rural Kenya, Sustainable Development Goals, program effectiveness
- MeSH terms
- Carbon, Climate, Conservation of Natural Resources, Developing Countries, Environmental Monitoring, Filtration, Humans, Kenya, Poverty, Water Purification, Drinking Water
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