Oil and gas giant teams up with C-Quest Capital to supply 'clean and efficient' cookstoves for 1.5 rural households, generating credits for the voluntary carbon market
Shell has struck a deal with social impact project developer C-Quest Capital to supply more than 60 million offset credits for the voluntary carbon market, with the oil and gas giant agreeing to fund "clean and efficient" cookstoves for more than 1.5 million rural households across eastern Africa.
The deal between the two companies, which was announced on Friday, will see them deliver over three million cookstoves fuelled by "entirely sustainable sources" of woody biomass over the next decade, in a move aimed at replacing the use of unsustainably harvested firewood for cooking that leads to both significant carbon emissions and local air pollution.
With around 1.5 million households set to receive two cookstoves each, the firms said the investment would help improve the health and well-being of over seven million people, by reducing exposure to toxic air pollution from open fires, as well as empowering women and girls by freeing them from carrying firewood over long distances.
Moreover, the deal is expected to generate over 60 million carbon credits, the firms said, as Shell continues to grow its interest in the burgeoning market for carbon offsets and nature-based climate solutions, driven by growing demand from corporates setting net zero emissions goals.
However, the voluntary carbon credit market remains largely unregulated, and controversies over past projects have led to increasing concerns over the credibility of carbon offset initiatives and their ability to deliver genuine CO2 reductions. As such, figures such as former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney have been leading efforts to draw up a more stringent set of rules for the voluntary carbon market, although this process has also been met with concerns from green groups.
However, C-Quest Capital and Shell Eastern Trading - a subsidiary of the oil and gas giant - insisted their agreement would deliver high quality carbon credits offering verified 'Sustainable Development Contributions' to the global voluntary carbon market.
"The agreement with Shell allows the lives of some of the poorest communities in the world to be significantly transformed for the long-term," explained Ken Newcombe, C-Quest Capital's CEO and founder. "It is about more than just reducing emissions - it's about improving the health and well-being of women, who are the key agents of social and economic development in rural Africa. Climate finance is just the means to a development end."
The deal forms the second part of a C-Quest Capital's "three pronged programme" aimed at improving the lives of people in Sub-Saharan Africa at scale. The first deal was signed last month with Australian banking giant Macquarie to fund the distribution of clean cookstoves to one million households in Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania, in a move expected to generate an estimated 40 million carbon credits for the voluntary carbon market over 10 years.
To date, C-Quest Capital claims to have reduced more than five million tonnes of CO2 through its development projects, while helping to improve the lives of more than 20 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, and South and Southeast Asia.