Accra, June 16, GNA - A Ghanaian company has won the world's most prestigious green energy award.

Toyola Energy Ltd, Ghana, was awarded the coveted Gold Award worth A340,000 in recognition of its success in making more than 150,000 efficient charcoal stoves and marketing them to low-income families at very affordable prices.

The announcement on Thursday night in London said the energy company from Ghana had been selected as the Gold Award winner of this year's Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.

A statement issued to the Ghana News Agency by the organisers on Thursday said winners from Pakistan, India and Africa were also announced at a VIP ceremony in London addressed by Greg Barker, UK Government Minister for Climate Change.

The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Ashden Awards, who personally congratulated the international winners in a meeting earlier today, said: 93The Ashden Awards show what it is possible to do now in saving resources and cutting emissions. They remind us how, as individuals, we can make a huge difference to the world in which we live. A0In a nutshell, they remind us that acting locally is, in fact, acting globally."

The statement said the Ashden Awards showcased 94practical solutions to combat climate change and meet the energy needs of the poor, rewarding outstanding and innovative clean energy schemes across the developing world and in the UK".

Sarah Butler-Sloss, Founder Director of the Ashden Awards and Chair of the judging panel said: 93Toyola Energy Ltd. has taken a simple stove technology, adapted it to make it more robust and efficient and then focused its efforts on making the stoves accessible to the poor so that they can save money and have cleaner, healthier environments to cook in.

"In the meantime Ghana's forests are protected and greenhouse emissions reduced. This is a perfect example of how much can be achieved through the use of simple, clean energy technologies and clever, pro-poor marketing strategies." =A0 By cutting the use of charcoal by around a third, Toyola's stoves save trees, reduce carbon emissions and allow families to make considerable savings.

They are also easy to cook with and are far less smoky than the traditional charcoal stoves that can cause breathing difficulties and, often, severe eye irritation over time.

There is also 90 per cent less chance of accidental burns when using a Toyola stove as compared to traditional stoves. By allowing the customers to buy the stoves on credit and use the money saved on charcoal to make repayments, Toyola ensures that the stoves are accessible to the poor.

As Josephine Adjololo, a user puts it, 93When I got the stove I was given this money box and every day I would put money in. When I eventually removed the money I had enough for the stove." In a country where most urban households spend a significant proportion of their household income cooking on inefficient and polluting charcoal stoves, the statement said, 93Toyola's success is significant.

Toyola's stoves are currently saving around 26,000 tonnes of charcoal a year - a tangible success given that charcoal comes largely from unsustainable sources."

=A0 It said the levels of CO2 reductions achieved - around 150,000 tonnes a year 96 had attracted the attention of Goldman Sachs who now buys Toyola's carbon offsets and sells them on the global market. Toyola has just opened a production centre in Togo and plans to open more centres in Benin and Sierra Leone in the next two years, stepping up sales to a further 140,000 stoves by 2013. 16 June 11