The PD-Forum (www.pd-forum.net) was established in 2009 and is a collective voice to represent the interests of over 50 companies developing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction projects in international carbon markets.

We are grateful to the IEA for its intervention in supporting Clean Cooking via carbon markets and for inviting the Forum to participate in the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa.

We support the aims of the IEA’s ‘Vision for Clean Cooking Access for All’, in particular the recognition of carbon markets as a crucial financing mechanism to achieve these aims. In particular, we acknowledge:

1. that carbon credit markets can help fill the financing gap for capital investment requirements for clean cooking access in Africa, and the affordability gap for reducing the cost of clean cookstoves and fuels
2. that several critical issues have hindered finance at greater scale to flow to clean cooking projects in Africa through carbon credits

We agree with the need prioritize two key areas:

1. enhancing the quality of carbon credits from clean cooking
2. build up confidence and demand for high-quality carbon credits from clean cooking

To do this, we broadly agree with the following IEA’s proposed actions:

1. Strengthening clean cooking crediting methodologies
2. Improving transparency on revenue and benefits distribution
3. Driving higher demand for carbon credits from clean cooking activities

We are supportive of the Clean Cooking Alliance and the UNFCCC in the in-process development of the “4C” clean cooking carbon methodology and the the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)’s Core Carbon Principles (CCPs).

We believe that these initiatives will help to both enhance quality and increase demand, for all cooking projects under Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, as well as the Voluntary Carbon Market and CORSIA.

As a grouping of practitioners in the field, those that are actively working with beneficiary communities on a daily basis, we would augment the IEA’s High Level Declaration as follows:

TO ACKNOWLEDGE the role that carbon markets have played to date in the step-change of activity in the sector, whereby more than 15.5 million improved cookstoves (ICS) have been delivered to Africa by utilizing carbon finance.

TO REFLECT on the immediate and pressing need for ‘efficient’ cooking solutions in more remote communities in Africa. In the short term, it is simply not viable to deliver clean cooking to all communities across the continent; and neglecting the quick wins, and significant impacts, that efficient cooking can deliver today, would be a missed opportunity.

TO RECOGNIZE the need for methodologies to be strengthened and consolidated, particularly at the UNFCCC level, and aligned with the science. Efforts should be made to correct inaccuracies, such as the undue penalization of clean, LPG-based cooking which emits far fewer greenhouse gases and local pollutants compared to traditional fuels like wood or charcoal. LPG is a critical solution in areas where electricity is unreliable, and other ‘clean’ fuels are unavailable, particularly in many African and Least Developed Countries.

TO EMPHASIZE that, where possible, emissions reductions calculated by ICS carbon projects should use precise, location-specific data over conservative, lower-accuracy default values, such as those estimating household fuel use. It is critical for ICS carbon projects to prioritize accuracy in calculating emissions reductions, and to evolve and adopt more accurate approaches over time, as monitoring technologies improve with increasing digitization, whilst also maintaining the simplification of the project design and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) processes.

Nick Marshall (Director – on behalf of the members of PD Forum)

1. Will be available on pd-forum.net
2. Will be available to the press