Saving lives and uplifting carbon credit integrity with clean cookstoves

Just the gist

Short on time? Here’s what you need to know for this update:

• 👩‍🍳 Uplifting carbon credit integrity in the clean cooking sector — Our project partner is dedicated to measurability and transparency, being the first initiative in Africa to implement Gold Standard's Methodology for Metered & Measured Energy Cooking Devices.
• 🔮 Looking into the future of clean cooking at COP29 — A panel discussion at the world's largest climate conference highlighted the importance of carbon credits in the clean cooking sector.
• 👋 Getting to know our project partner — Supporting projects like Clean Cookstoves in East Africa saves lives. Learn more in the welcome letter from our project partner’s CEO, Tom Price.

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Uplifting carbon credit integrity in the clean cooking sector

About 30% of the global population still cook over open fires, with nearly four in five people in Africa relying on wood or charcoal with inefficient stoves. Inefficient cooking releases carbon dioxide (CO₂) that harms not only the environment, but also the families who breathe in harmful smoke while preparing their daily meals.

While clean cookstoves effectively reduce CO₂ emissions and help stop deforestation, the sector has recently suffered from over-crediting issues. That’s why it was important to us that we partner with a clean cooking project that makes a sustainable difference and can measurably prove it.

Credits produced by our partners behind Clean cookstoves in East Africa are among the top 7.8% of all projects rated by BeZero Carbon because of the high likelihood that it is actually achieving the emission reductions that it says it is creating.

This was the first project to issue emission reductions in Africa under the Gold Standard’s Methodology for Metered & Measured Energy Cooking Devices and receive an A rating from BeZero Carbon. They recently hosted the Gold Standard team in Nairobi, Kenya to see their biomass cookstoves in action.

Carbon markets can be difficult to navigate. As the world continues to see the devastating effects of climate change, Wren continues to support impactful projects that prioritize sustainability, transparency, and accountability.

Looking into the future of clean cooking at COP29

At the recent COP29 climate conference, our project partner—EcoSafi—participated in a panel discussion with Modern Cooking Facility For Africa, EED Advisory, and Gold Standard, titled: Future growth scenarios in the clean cooking sector – Role of carbon finance to scale up activities.

Carbon finance has a pivotal role in making clean cooking technologies more accessible. By making clean cooking solutions more affordable through carbon credits, we're helping to create a sustainable market that benefits both people and the planet.

During the panel, EcoSafi highlighted the potential of clean cooking and how a metered and measured methodology helps ensure transparency and accuracy in carbon credit generation. This rigorous approach not only validates the project's impact but also sets a new standard for accountability in the clean cooking sector.

You can watch the whole panel discussion below:

The future looks bright for clean cooking in Africa. With growing support from carbon markets, innovative technologies, and rigorous measurement standards, we're seeing a transformation in how families cook their daily meals. This shift not only reduces emissions but also improves health outcomes and economic opportunities for communities across the continent.

Getting to know our project partner

Our project partner, EcoSafi, helps families and businesses in East Africa switch from charcoal to cleaner cooking options. Here is a personal thank you from EcoSafi’s CEO.

Hey there Wren members!

We are excited to connect with you and the others in the Wren community, to help support our shared goals of making our planet a more sustainable, just world for all of us.

EcoSafi is a clean cooking fuel utility business operating in East Africa, solving the number one household source of CO₂e emissions in the developing world: making dinner. Every day, more than two billion people basically light a campfire in their house, to cook over dirty, expensive, and unsustainable firewood and charcoal. It’s toxic, for them, and for our planet. Worldwide, cooking this way emits more CO₂e than the entire global aviation industry.

But it doesn’t have to be like this, and with your help we’re making it better every day. We give our customers a super clean cookstove to use at almost no cost, and then sell them pellet fuel made from agricultural by-products to use in it to cook. It’s 98% cleaner than cooking with charcoal, costs half as much, and uses zero trees.

So you’re changing lives, literally. Each cookstove provides families with a cleaner, cheaper, and more sustainable way to cook, while also avoiding up to 3.5 tonnes of CO₂e per household, per year.

We prove that impact using the most rigorous methodology available, tracking the sale of every kilogram of fuel right to the kitchen. That’s how we became the first and so far only “A” rated cookstove project in the world as rated by BeZero Carbon, making us among the top 7.8% most highly rated projects of any climate solution worldwide that they have evaluated.

Our partnership with Wren is a critical part of our work, helping keep trees in the forest, and out of the kitchen.

Thank you for all you’re doing to help families live a more sustainable, healthy, and affordable life.

-Tom Price
Co-founder and CEO of EcoSafi

That's all for this update! As always, thank you for your support.
— the Wren team 🧡