A recent study published in Nature Sustainability has revealed that the greenhouse gas-reducing benefits of clean cookstove initiatives have been overestimated by up to tenfold. This groundbreaking research challenges the effectiveness of existing carbon offset schemes that aim to replace traditional charcoal and wood-burning stoves with more efficient alternatives.
Globally, approximately 2.4 billion people rely on primitive cookstoves that contribute significantly to global warming and cause millions of pollution-related deaths each year. To combat this, various projects have introduced cleaner cookstoves and funded these initiatives through the sale of carbon credits, where one credit is meant to represent one tonne of carbon dioxide avoided.
However, the new study scrutinized five different methodologies used to measure emission reductions from cookstove projects and found significant shortcomings. Analyzing data from about 40% of global cookstove credits, the researchers discovered that 26.7 million carbon credits only prevented approximately 2.9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions—barely a tenth of what was originally claimed.
Extrapolating these findings across all cookstove projects suggests that the carbon credits have been overvalued by more than ten times. This revelation calls for a reevaluation of current carbon offset practices and highlights the need for more rigorous and accurate measurement methods to ensure the effectiveness of climate mitigation efforts.
The implications of this study are far-reaching, potentially affecting funding strategies and policy-making in the fight against climate change. Ensuring the credibility of carbon credits is crucial for attracting investment and achieving genuine environmental impact.
Reference(s):
Researchers: Carbon-cutting benefit of cookstoves vastly overestimated
cgtn.com
