C-Quest Capital's program to distribute cleaner cookstoves across Mozambique, intended to reduce emissions and improve lives, has fallen short, with many stoves unused or broken, raising concerns about the credibility of carbon credits generated by the project.
C-Quest Capital's cookstove distribution in Mozambique faced issues with stove durability, leading many to revert to traditional cooking methods.
The company's claims of widespread stove use and resulting carbon credits are questioned due to poor monitoring and inaccurate usage data.
A shift in company management has revealed potential wrongdoing by the former CEO, leading to the suspension of related carbon credit projects.
Key quote:
“This is clearly not the best they could do.”
— Victoria Jose Arriscado, cookstove recipient in Mozambique
Why this matters:
The failure of projects like C-Quest’s undermines trust in the carbon credit market, a critical tool in global efforts to combat climate change. Poor execution not only fails to deliver promised environmental benefits but can also worsen conditions for the communities they aim to help.
Clean cookstove projects, one of the most popular types of carbon-offset schemes, are probably overstating their beneficial impact on the climate by an average of 1,000%, according to a new study.
Millions of lives were at stake. Hillary Clinton was on board. Money poured in. And yet the big aims behind an effort to tackle the plague of third-world cooking fires has produced only modest gains.
