WASHINGTON – Mar. 7, 2025 | Verra’s new cookstoves methodology has been approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) (external) under its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) Assessment Framework, marking a major milestone for clean cooking projects and the voluntary carbon market (VCM). This approval reinforces the methodology’s scientific rigor, transparency, and credibility, and underscores that cookstove carbon credits deliver real, measurable, and verifiable emissions reductions while improving the lives of millions.

This recognition makes the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program methodology, VM0050 Energy Efficiency and Fuel-Switch Measures in Cookstoves, v1.0, one of the first methodologies for clean cooking projects to meet the ICVCM’s high-integrity standards. VM0050 sets a new benchmark for quality and impact in carbon markets, signaling to project developers and buyers that credits generated under this methodology meet the highest standards for environmental integrity.

“Today’s approval by the ICVCM is a defining milestone for clean cooking projects and the voluntary carbon market. There are 2.3 billion people in the world who still rely on polluting cooking methods; cookstove projects and the carbon credits they generate can deliver both clean cooking technologies and the necessary finance to provide them to local communities. The ICVCM’s decision is a powerful endorsement of cookstove credits as a high-integrity climate solution that provides measurable environmental benefits for global impact.

Mandy Rambharos, CEO, Verra

The approval of VM0050 aligns with ongoing efforts to strengthen confidence in the VCM, including the market’s compatibility with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement as well as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). This news follows the ICVCM’s 2024 approval of the VCS Program as a whole.

Background

VM0050 represents a robust and credible methodology for projects implementing clean cooking approaches. It does the following:

  • Reflects current best practices of project design and implementation in distributed thermal energy generation
  • Incorporates new and developing science and understanding of clean cookstove approaches
  • Covers a broad set of activities and cooking technologies and practices by consolidating and strengthening existing or inactivated cookstove methodologies
  • Addresses the need for projects to maintain continuous access to the carbon markets and enables fair transition timelines for projects
  • Takes into consideration recent market criticisms and allows for continued evolution

Contact:  

Media Inquiries: Erdem Koch | ekoch@verra.org

# # #

Verra is a global leader helping to tackle the world’s most intractable environmental and social challenges. As a mission-driven nonprofit organization, Verra is committed to helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve livelihoods, and protect natural resources by working with the private and public sectors. We support climate action and sustainable development with standards programs and tools that credibly, transparently, and robustly assess environmental and social impacts and enable funding for sustaining and scaling up projects that verifiably deliver these benefits.