 US$6 cooker made from a cardboard box wins the FT Climate Challenge prize... "It's the simplest idea I could find," says Jon Bohmer, the man behind the 'Kyoto Box'. London's Financial Times newspaper and Hewlett Packard sponsored the US$75,000 Climate Challenge prize - which was organised by Forum for the Future, a UK sustainable development charity. The Kyoto Box is named after the 1992 Earth Summit Kyoto Protocol which strives to limit and stabilise the concentration of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere in order to combat long-term dangers to global climate. A simple design... it's made of two interlined cardboard boxes, foil lining the interior, paint and straw for further insulation and heat capture and all topped off with an acrylic cover that lets the sun's rays in then traps the heat. For some of the poorest people in the world, the invention promises to reduce the reliance on wood and charcoal for cooking food and boiling water. Bohmer, the inventor of the Kyoto Box plans to use the prize money to roll-out mass trials of the product in 10 countries, including South Africa, India and Indonesia. Bohmer envisions the box being given away for free to those who need it. And if the Kyoto Box is eligible for carbon credits, then it may result in a net profit for the individuals operating it, enabling them to replace the solar cooker with another within 4-5 years.
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