Climate leaders live in cave and mud dwellings are waking up from their coal- burning past to herald a carbon free future.

Goodbye to coal & firewood burning, embrace biogas

Goodbye to animal waste, pig-waste-into-biogas is green energy

Goodbye to animal waste, pig-waste-into-biogas is green energy

Goodbye to firewood gathering, village women are liberated

Goodbye to coal burning, goodbye to dirty lungs

Goodbye to logging, goodbye to deforestation and soil erosion

Goodbye to chemical fertilizer, biogas residue is good substitute

Goodbye to filthy pigsties, piggy friends redeem their dignity

Goodbye to smelly toilets, self-esteem regained

Goodbye to sooty kitchens, no more tearful eyes

Goodbye to pests & bugs, biogas lamp is a natural repellent

Goodbye to child neglect, more time for parenting

Goodbye to poverty, spare time for new productivity

Goodbye to self-pity, self-help brings self-reliance

Goodbye to unsustainable past, herald a NewAgeVillage

Q.What is the aim of the Sunflower Project?

A.To help poor village folks in the western provinces switch from coal and firewood burning to turn-pig-waste-into-biogas.To rally for donations to retrofit pigsties, toilets and kitchen stoves and to build underground biogas wells.It is hoped that the switch to biogas will halt logging for firewood, reduce animal waste pollution of watercourses, minimize pollution from coal burning and to improve sanitary hygiene in poor villages.b

Q.When did it start?Whose idea was it?

A.The Shaanxi Volunteer Mothers Association for Environmental protection has been promoting village biogas in Shaanxi since 1999.In 2005, two Hong Kong green advocators joined in.They are Mrs. Mei Ng, a UN Global 500 Laureate and Board member of Friends of the Earth (HK) and Ms Cherie Chung, film star-turned-nature-photographer.

Together they renamed the project“The Sunflower” to symbolize the Yellow earth, rooted on soil and upright facing the sun that lights up the lives of humble village folks in China’s drought-plagued and soil-eroded western regions.

Q.Why there is a need for the project?

A.China is facing pressure from over population, energy shortage and an endangered environment, which is limiting its growth.Saving energy and saving the environment is the urgent responsibility of every citizen and households.

Q.Why target the villagers?

A.China has over 900 million peasants and villagers who are living off depleting natural resources and engaging in conventional cut-and-burn clear-and-grow unsustainable production processes, it is time to wake up.

Understanding the relationship between poverty and ecological degradation and the importance of living in harmony with Nature is the first step towards sustainability.

Q.Why Shaanxi?

A.Northern Shaanxi is suffering from serious soil erosion, over-logging and over-farming, which led to increasing poverty.By promoting village biogas, farmers are persuaded to stop logging and coal burning, switch from their fields to their backyard orchards, from crop growing to tree planting, from ecological offenders to become environmental protectors.

Q.What is the benefit for each biogas household?

A.Biogas switch saves each household 1000 kg of coal, 200 kWh of electricity or 3 mu (Chinese acre) of firewood from being logged in a year.

In addition to saving money from buying coal, saving time from gathering firewood, it also saves lungs and saving watercourses from animal waste pollution.Besides, biogas residue is an effective substitute for fertilizer and pest control.This has become a natural diversion towards organic farming, quality living and quality eating.

Q.How would it benefit China’s ecology?

A.Halt logging and soil erosion, stop over-farming and over-grazing, saves energy, reduce pollution, transform resource-intensive energy-intensive village production mode to embrace diversified sustainable development.

Q.How would it benefit global ecology?

A.City folks and village folks are consumers of energy and producers of greenhouse gas.They are also victims of climate change and ecological degradation.So a switch from carbon economy to carbon free development is the way forward.Village reform coupled with energy switch will help to reduce carbon emission.

By comparing air quality of biogas village households with those that burn conventional fuels, experts have found that the former have reduced carbon monoxide by 80%, carbon dioxide by 60%, sulphur dioxide by 80%, fume and dust by 90%.

Q.Who are the major promoters of the Sunflower Project?

A.The Shaanxi Volunteer Mothers Association and Cuncaoxin are major partners.

Q.Who are the supporting organizations?

A.Shaanxi Women Federation, Shaanxi Agriculture Bureau, Shaanxi Environmental Protection Bureau, Shaanxi Hydrology Bureau and local government veterinary units, as well as energy and technical offices.

Q.How many village biogas households have been completed?

A.385 households completed in 2005-2006, at total of 1498 households to date.

Q.What are your target households for the future?

A.1000 households between 2007-2010

Q.How much donation required?

A.About $ 1.2 million RMB

Q.What is the cost per biogas household?

A.It costs about $3600 RMB to build one biogas household, the expense includes costs for retrofitting pigsty, toilet, kitchen stove and building underground methane well.

Q.Is there a cost sharing arrangement?

A.A tri-partite cost sharing is implemented: one third borne by farmers/ villagers, one third subsidized by local government and one third by donation.

Q.What is the return?

A.An 8-10 cubic meter biogas well can produce 380-450 cubic meters of gas, supplies fuel for a household of 3-5 persons for 10-12 months.It is equivalent to a saving of 1000Kg of coal, 200 kWh of electricity or 3 mu (Chinese acre) of firewood a year.

Q.What is the carbon footprint of an average Shaanxi village household?

A.Every kg of coal burnt produces 1.2 kg of CO2

Every mu (Chinese acre) firewood chopped absorbed 0.6 tons less CO2

A household burning 1000 kg of coal a year produces

(1000kg x 1.2 Kg Co2) = 1.2 tons CO2

A household burning 3 mu of firewood produces

(3 mu x 0.6 tons CO2) = 1.8 tons CO2

Q.What is the carbon offset cost for the biogas switch?

A.A coal burning household switches to biogas would cost

$3600 divided by (20yr.x 1.2 tons) = $150 RMB/ton CO2

A firewood burning household switches to biogas would cost

$3600 divided by (20 yr.x 1.8 tons) = $100 RMB/ton CO2

(Assuming a well serviced biogas system operates for 20 years lifespan).

Q.What is the Donor’s carbon offset estimation?

A.Donor contribution of RMB $1200, supplemented by two-thirds funding from local government and villagers themselves, can help one village household build biogas facility.

Donation to help coal burning household switch to biogas offsets

$1200 divided by $150= 8 tons CO2

Donation to help firewood burning household switch to biogas offsets

$1200 divided by $100 = 12 tons CO2

Q.Has the scheme won international recognition?

A.In 2006, the Shaanxi Volunteer Mothers Association for Environmental Protection won the Ashden Awards, which is an esteem international energy award.Ms Wang Ming-ying, the chief promoter of the SunflowerVillage Biogas Project, went to London to receive the award.

Prince Charles invited Ms Wang and other winners to his Palace and personally congratulated them for their outstanding vision and achievement.

From pigsty to RoyalPalace, from backyard to global stage, Sunflower has lit up lives of humble folks in rural China and did them proud