4 February 2014: The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the Gold Standard Foundation and Nexus Carbon For Development have announced their collaboration to create a ‘Clean Cooking Loan Fund,’ which will aim to leverage private sector investments into clean cooking technologies.

The new fund aims to boost commercial investment in the market for clean cookstoves, the absence of which has to date been a barrier to market development for entrepreneurs and others. Specifically, while clean cookstove projects would normally qualify for as carbon offset projects, the certification process and lag time of up to two years before revenues from such projects are seen makes them impossible for many entrepreneurs to access. The fund is specifically designed to address this problem and “take on financial risk associated with the carbon process by offering a loan to project developers. It will not purchase emission reductions but these will be used as collateral to the loan” explained Marion Verles, executive director of Nexus, fund manager for the Fund. Monitoring, verification and reporting on environmental, social and economic benefits are also considered key to de-risking such projects by the fund. Initially the fund is being financed with US$290,ooo from the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, with an additional $1 million in donor funding currently being sought.

According to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, nearly three billion people rely on dirty, carbon-intensive biomass cooking fuels that are often burned on open pit fires, leading to high levels of indoor air pollution, which leads to four million premature deaths per annum, a majority of whom are women and girls. Clean cookstoves reduce indoor air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions dramatically, as well as lowering fuel costs for the user.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private-partnership between civil society, international organizations, implementing agents in the private sector and 40 national governments, that seeks to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. [Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Press Release] [Fund Website] [IISD RS Sources]