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101 DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION mitigate climate change due to deforestation. A department of biomass was also recently created at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to ensure sustainable biomass supply and efficient use of the biomass resource. The biomass department has developed a Biomass Energy Strategy for Uganda. The office of the president has also shown interest in biodiversity conservation and supported the introduction of an energy efficiency and conservation bill. The need for modern biomass energy has become more tenable due to increasing costs of firewood and charcoal for cooking, rising electricity demand, and the diminish- ing sources of wood charcoal. With the price of charcoal increasing every day, charcoal briquettes are beginning to make financial sense. If effectively utilised, the initiative can become a lasting solution to climate change and global warming as it significantly minimises the felling of trees and indoor pollution that affects the lives of many people. However, there is still need for major investment to ensure a regular supply of briquettes. The charcoal briquette technology contributes a very small percentage towards the reduction of environmental degrada- tion. It is therefore necessary to promote other technologies such as brick making that does not require use of firewood; low cost roofing material that reduces the use of timber; and low cost environmentally-friendly lighting technologies. Conclusion Although this was a pilot project that officially closed in 2014, its impacts have lived on through knowledge sharing and technology transfer. When the project was introduced in 2011, farmers were used to burning agricultural waste but had no other interest in it as they did not know that it had alternative uses that would generate income and become an alternative source of energy for cooking. In recent years, charcoal briquette businesses have gown up throughout the country, charcoal briquettes consti- tute 6 per cent of the total biomass energy consumption, government has introduced new directives and strategies to curb deforestation, UNCST has obtained new national and international partnerships on charcoal briquettes, and the production of charcoal briquettes has created new sources of employment and income among others. The majority of manufacturers make the briquettes by hand in very small quantities, mainly for their own consumption, selling the remainder to the community to supplement their incomes Image: UNCST–IsDB Project 2013a