THE BIG BUSINESS OF POLLUTED AIR*

Edition-2
The certificates are so cheap because emissions trade has a loophole: the sale of indulgences between rich industrialized nations and the rest of the world.
With the money that German common people unknowingly invests in the emissions trade, RWE buys thousand of wood cookers sits in the dusty courtyard behind Patricia Cheelo house: a shiny, hexagonal, Knee-high drum of stainless steel punctured with air holes. All Cheelo needs is a few wooden sticks, which she places in the drum’s combustion chamber. She uses a pan that can be sealed very tightly.
Until recently, Cheelo required two huge sacks of charcoal each month to cook enough for herself, her children and her grandchildren. This would use up more than a third of her monthly income, approx. 28 euros. Thanks to the RWE cooker, which saves 80 per cent energy, Cheelo is now able to save 20 euros.

*By Malte Henk & Jurgen Schaefer