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With its large funding flows and rapid growth, the carbon market could provide the financial resources necessary to significantly expand clean cooking access. However, carbon finance must be done responsibly, based on sound, verifiable, and up-to-date methodologies and realistic assumptions that reflect integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Lessons from other early-stage markets clearly show the need to take a proactive approach to helping manage risks inherent in developing markets such as that for carbon and clean cooking.
Together with partners from across the ecosystem, CCA has identified four key risk-areas that need to be managed if opportunities in carbon markets are to be realized. These have been identified based on CCA’s collaboration with standard bodies and registries in both CDM and voluntary markets, its strategic support to clean cooking companies, and its engagement with key stakeholders.
The risk-areas include:
- Integrity and coherence to build market confidence through more transparent and coherent policies, standards and methodologies, especially in narrowing methodological differences across standard bodies in estimating carbon-offset volumes, emissions reductions and co-benefits across different stove/fuel technologies;
- Fair pricing and revenue-sharing to enable transparent and equitable distribution of the proceeds of carbon revenue along the carbon value chain;
- Additionality and complementarity to enable carbon finance to complement and catalyze other efforts and forms of finance or at least ‘do no harm’ to these, including optimizing public subsidies that enable the sustainable development of clean cooking markets;
- Market access and competition to enable many clean cooking companies to access carbon markets by lowering the costs of market entry and of doing business, which include better integration with the digital economy and improved access to finance for project development, capital investment, and operating expenses.
Working Together to Move Forward
CCA collaborates with initiatives that seek to scale carbon markets and better govern the conduct of these markets. Recognizing the set of distinctive risks referenced above, CCA created the Responsible Carbon Finance for Clean Cooking Initiative (RCF4CCI).
The objective of the RCF4CCI is to co-create a shared vision with relevant industry stakeholders on the development of responsible carbon markets for clean cooking and chart a roadmap to realizing the vision.
This initiative has established four working groups that mirror the four risk-areas listed above. The working groups have more than 350 representatives from across the climate and cooking sectors. The working groups are expected to create a shared perspective on the key challenges, priority areas action, and points of complementarity and convergence with other sector-agnostic global and national processes and initiatives, such as Africa Carbon Markets Initiative, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market.
Leadership and Governance
Each of the working groups will be led by two Co-Chairs, all of whom were nominated by CCA and have confirmed their participation (more details about the Co-Chairs are available here). The working groups will be supported by CCA and Climate Focus, whom CCA has commissioned to assist in facilitating the working groups.
Working Groups
| Integrity and Coherence | ||
| Name | Role | Organization |
| Michael Johnson | Co-Chair | Technical Director, Berkeley Air Monitoring Group |
| Shachar Hatan | Co-Chair | Program Manager, Sylvera |
| Donee Alexander | CCA Lead | Chief Science and Learning Officer, CCA |
| Felipe Bravo | Support Lead | Senior Consultant, Climate Focus |
| Fair Pricing and Revenue Sharing | ||
| Name | Role | Organization |
| Shveta Sarin | Co-Chair | Business Development Advisor, Shell Foundation |
| Nils Razmilovic | Co-Chair | CEO, Cynk |
| Colm Fay | CCA Lead | Senior Director, Market Strengthening, CCA |
| Darragh Conway | Support Lead | Lead Legal Counsel, Climate Focus |
| Additionality and Complementarity | ||
| Name | Role | Organization |
| Marcell Raats | Co-Chair | Team Manager for Global Public Goods, Energy and Climate Change, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) |
| Vikash Talyan | Co-Chair | Senior Director, Standard Development & Innovation, Gold Standard |
| Lindsay Barone | CCA Lead | Senior Director, Strategy and Development, CCA |
| Rob Bailis | Support Lead | Senior Scientist, Stockholm Environmental Institute |
| Level Playing Field: Market Access and Competition | ||
| Name | Role | Organization |
| Ash Sharma | Co-Chair | Vice President, NEFCO |
| Sophie Odupoy | Co-Chair | Group Head of Public Affairs, KOKO Networks |
| Jean-Louis Racine | CCA Lead | Chief Program Officer, CCA |
| Szymon Mikolajczyk | Support Lead | Lead Consultant, Climate Focus |
Secretariat
| CCA | ||
| Name | Role | Organization |
| Dymphna van der Lans | CEO | CCA |
| Feisal Hussain | Initiative Convener | Senior Director, Innovative Finance, CCA |
| Ronan Ferguson | Initiative Manager | Senior Manager, Private Sector & Investment, CCA |
| Jake Sottak | Communications | Senior Associate, Global Networks & Partnerships |
| Climate Focus | ||
| Name | Role | Organization |
| Hilda Galt | Project Manager | Lead Consultant, Climate Focus |
| Bregje Drion | Working Group Coordinator: Fair Pricing and Revenue Sharing, Additionality and Complementarity, Market Access and Competition | Consultant, ClimateFocus |
| Sangeet Mithra Manirajah | Working Group Coordinator: Integrity and Coherence | Senior Consultant, ClimateFocus |
| Imogen Long | Coordinator | Consultant, Climate Focus |
Key Elements
Some of the principal areas of the RCF4CCI include:
Research
RCF4CCI will publish landscape research and a framework and methodology to map and assess emerging risks for carbon financing in clean cooking, later this year.
Multi-stakeholder Working Groups
RCF4CCI will engage with working group members over the summer through a series of virtual and face-to-face meetings of the working groups, as well as wider consultative processes through industry leading events such as the Africa Climate Week.
Roadmap to COP 28
RCF4CCI will produce a set of recommended actions that can be taken into COP 28 in Dubai. The set of actions will cover the development of policies, standards, market infrastructure, and research over the next five years.
Annual Pulse Checks
RCF4CCI will undertake assessment of risks in clean cooking sectors within carbon markets, helping to mobilize opinion and refreshing priorities in these markets. These assessments will be done annually and produce insights that can be taken into each successive COP event.
Keep in Touch
If you would like to join the mailing list to receive updates, please reach out to CCA at carbon@cleancooking.org.
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