A December 3rd article in the Financial Times reports how a Mercy Corps-operated stove project in Goma (eastern Congo) is selling carbon offsets to western companies on the voluntary market. It is partially reproduced below but you can only read the complete article on the FT site.

Among the more interesting facts reported are:

* Projects like these are attractive to private investors in the the voluntary carbon market (as opposed to CDM) because the provide a social benefit as well as an environmental one. More bang for your buck, so to speak.

* A project on this scale does not generate sufficient income from the sale of carbon offsets to cover its costs. In this case, this project receives funding from the EU.

* Climate change scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan (UC San Diego) says projects like this one could also have a “huge benefit” for global warming through the reduction of “black carbon” (CO2 mixed with soot). Prof. Ramanathan has begun a project in India that will be the

“first to measure systematically the climatic effects of whole villages changing the type of cooking stove they use. He believes the results will show that reducing black carbon emissions is spectacularly more effective than cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

He concludes:

If my data can show that one ton of black carbon has the same effect of healing the climate as 1,000 tons of CO2, — just imagine the carbon credits each villager would gain.”

Needless to say we’ll be keeping a close eye on Prof. Ramanathan’s work.  We’ll also try to get a hold of the Mercy Corps team implementing the stove project to get their views.

Financial Times

A burning issue in the climate change fight

By Jack Farchy in Goma

Published: December 3 2009 18:03 | Last updated: December 3 2009 19:11

Agnes Nyanzira is not concerned about her carbon footprint. She lives in a camp for internal refugees just outside Goma, eastern Congo, has seven children to care for, has a problem with one of her feet, and feels she spends all day collecting firewood.

That should soon change. On the uneven volcanic ground where she has pitched her tiny tent, Ms Nyanzira is showing off her new, fuel-efficient cooking stove. It is a potent, if modest, weapon against climate change. By burning wood more completely, it will roughly halve the amount of fuel she uses.

Partly funded by selling carbon credits to western companies trying to offset their emissions, Ms Nyanzira’s cooking stove offers an insight into how environmentally friendly projects can help more than just the environment.

Elisha Moore-Delate, who runs the stoves project in Congo for aid agency Mercy Corps, says the biggest benefit of the stoves is that they increase security in the volatile region, particularly for women. “There are large military factions where they are going to collect wood. [The fuel-efficient stoves mean] they are less frequently out in areas of conflict and potential danger.”

It is the social potential of projects such as this as well as their environmental impact that attracts western investors, says Jamal Gore, managing-director of Carbon Clear, a London-based company that buys the carbon credits generated by the programme in eastern Congo.

This is the appeal of the voluntary carbon trading market, he says, as opposed to the market in “compliance” carbon credits regulated under the Kyoto protocol, through the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism and the European Union’s emissions trading scheme. “It would be easier to go out and invest in a traditional wind farm or landfill gas project but that wouldn’t reach the goals we’re aiming for.” Read more.