HELPING MORE ENTERPRISES JOIN THE CARBON MARKET

Carbon finance must be

accessible to clean cooking

enterprises of all sizes.

Despite recent growth, there remains significant potential for carbon markets to deliver increased climate finance to the clean cooking sector.

Less than 5% of carbon credits generated in the voluntary carbon market are from clean cooking, while fewer than 10 project developers dominate the flow of clean cooking credits.

In response, CCA launched the Venture Accelerator program to help early-stage clean cooking companies access carbon finance.

_{^{© Evans Ahorsu / Clean Cooking Alliance}}

SUPPORTING CLEAN COOKING COMPANIES ACCESS CARBON FINANCE THROUGH THE VENTURE ACCELERATOR

CCA developed the Venture Accelerator, with support from APA Corporation, to help early-stage businesses in developing carbon finance projects, providing them with the tools, strategies, expertise, and networks they need.

The program’s first cohort comprised eight companies from West Africa and kicked off with an intensive boot camp in Accra, Ghana, in November 2023. Participants benefit from capacity building, individualized business coaching, and tailored technical assistance to develop a carbon finance strategy. To run the program, CCA is working with Hamerkop and Jiri Services as technical partners and Innohub and Mirepa Capital as West Africa experts and business coaches.

“The process involves complex and costly requirements for carbon certification, monitoring, and verification ... accessing carbon markets often requires connections to investors and or buyers who are mostly interested in putting their money into operations that pass their vigorous checks. Many companies do not go beyond the first test for many reasons including operational and manpower capability, lack of expertise, and the ability to reach the critical mass to be considered worth investing in.”
_{^{–Nicholas Manu, CEO & Founder, CookClean Ghana; trainer and mentor, Cohort 1 boot camp}}

INTERVIEW WITH KAMAL-DEEN KASSIM, CEO OF HINATA ENERGY

Hinata Energy is a renewable energy startup in Nigeria, with a core business in the retail of affordable and safe bioethanol cookstoves and fuels. The company’s CEO, Kamal-Deen Kassim, participated in the first cohort of the Venture Accelerator.

Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA): What attracted you to the Venture Accelerator?

Kamal-Deen Kassim (Kassim): Our primary goal for applying to CCA’s Venture Accelerator was to gain knowledge about establishing a carbon finance program. We plan to achieve this through active engagement with carbon finance experts and other participants in the Venture Accelerator. The knowledge gained will also help us develop carbon strategies for our business in Nigeria.

Another goal is to build critical business and technical relationships and improve our environmental and energy sector network by leveraging the excellent platform of entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers the Venture Accelerator offers.

CCA: How would leveraging significant streams of carbon finance enhance the scalability and sustainability of your business?

Kassim: Bioethanol cookstoves are clean, safe, and durable, with high thermal efficiency. But they are not affordable, especially to low-income households in rural and peri-urban areas. To scale sustainably as a business, we need to push for bioethanol stove affordability and investment in fuel distribution infrastructure, so that low-income earners can easily afford the cookstove. One way affordability and scalability could be achieved is by leveraging carbon finance. The revenue generated through the sales of carbon credits will be used to fund our fuel distribution infrastructure and subsidize our bioethanol cookstoves.

CCA: What challenges has Hinata faced in accessing carbon finance?

Kassim: Establishing a carbon finance program requires a large amount of funding, which Hinata Energy hasn’t yet been able to raise. The funding is an essential prerequisite and will be used to implement several activities such as project feasibility studies, project design documentation, stakeholder engagement, and program registration with Gold Standard or Verified Carbon standards. The funding will also be used for pre-financing the purchase and deployment of bioethanol cookstoves to supply end-users and generate carbon credits.

Another challenge we face is the limited number of carbon finance experts familiar with a bioethanol carbon project, unlike with other clean cookstoves such as improved charcoal cookstoves.

While these challenges exist, our perseverance has enabled us to overcome them. Currently, we are working with Project Gaia and receiving technical assistance from Jiri Services through the CCA Venture Accelerator. Project Gaia provides cost-effective support, and it is the only NGO with a program of activities for ethanol. In addition, thanks to CCA, we’re holding discussions with potential carbon finance investors. We are also open to discussions with other interested carbon finance investors.