Voluntary Carbon Report To Show Surge In Carbon Funding For Clean Cook Stoves

[Dan Campbell]

Voluntary Carbon Report To Show Surge In Carbon Funding For Clean Cook Stoves

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The sixth annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report will be released on Thursday, and although many of the key numbers are still embargoed, some findings have already begun to circulate.  One of the more important involves carbon finance for clean cookstoves, which surged in 2011 – good news for a technology that can save up to two million lives per year. 

COLOGNE | Germany | 30 May 2012 | Indoor pollution from coal-, dung- and wood-burning stoves and fire pits kills nearly two million people each year – including half of all children under the age of five who die from pneumonia – according to the World Bank. 

Stoves and fire pits also generate hundreds of millions of tons of carbon emissions, which is why one apparently minor finding in Thursday’s sixth annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report may turn out to be one of the more substantial. 

Specifically, the report shows that carbon finance for clean cookstoves soared at least 40% in 2011 – an environmental development hat’s also a development and health win. On the development front, clean cookstoves require less fuel, while on the health front, they don’t cause pneumonia, emphysema, lung cancer, or bronchitis. 

Clean cookstoves, however, don’t come for free. Locally-produced ceramic stoves that burn 40% less fuel cost anywhere from $20 to $60, and higher-end stoves can run to $100 – a pittance for most people in the developed world, but a month’s salary for people across the developing world. 

That’s where carbon markets come in. 

“You could potentially see billions of dollars flowing into this space over the coming years,” says Simon Bishop of the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves, a two-year-old consortium of more than 350 entities that aims to distribute more than 100 clean cookstoves by the year 2020. The report shows that scores of alliance members have used carbon finance to underwrite their activities, and Bishop says scores of others are looking to follow suit. 

“Carbon finance can be used to tackle a whole variety of barriers that currently prevent the adoption of clean-cook stoves,” he says. “It can be used to improve the design of stoves, to run awareness-raising campaigns, and to support a whole variety of activities that bring down cost so that millions of more homes could potentially afford them.”

The Economics

An improved cookstove can last up to five years and reduce carbon emissions by up to three tons per year, says Bishop. That means carbon finance can more than cover the cost of individual stoves. 

“You’re talking about up to 15 tons of revenue for a cook stove that can cost $30 - $100,” he says. “If you can get 15 tons of carbon revenue from a $30 cookstove, even at $4 per ton, that’s still double the cost of the actual stove in terms of carbon finance returns, and clearly if markets recover, the returns could be much higher.”

The Challenges

But carbon projects aren’t easy to launch. Just getting one off the ground costs anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 and requires tedious validation and verification. What’s more, the newer stoves often require training and education – two key reasons it’s taken so long for this sector to ratchet up. 

The report attributes the surge to new accounting methods that make it easier to aggregate lots of small actions, and to controversial rules that recognize avoided emissions from new cookerstoves. 

Beyond the challenges of carbon accounting, cookstoves face what Bishop calls the “the four As”: accountability, awareness, availability, and affordability. 

On the accountability front, he points out there are no globally recognized standards for clean cookstoves. On the affordability front, the best-performing stoves are still the most expensive. On the awareness front, most people still don’t realize how much pollution cookstoves generate. And on the availability front, stoves are heavy, fragile things that are difficult to transport a challenge made even worse by the fact that one size does not fit all. 

“You need a wide range of stoves to meet local fuel available, different family sizes, and differing food tastes,” says Bishop. “This means entrepreneurs need portfolio of products, and that’s hard to do, especially for an infant industry with low capacity.”

NOTE: We will update this piece tomorrow with embargoed figures and other details after the release of the report. If you're in Cologne for Carbon Expo, be sure to attend Thursday's launch of the sixth annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Report, which takes place at 10:30 am in Room 2. You can also find us at our stand: Booth B019 in Hall 11.1.