Carbon Finance Drives Clean-Cooking Adoption in Kenya

Across Africa, roughly one-billion people still rely on charcoal or firewood for daily cooking, a practice the International Energy Agency (IEA) links to about 850,000 premature deaths each year. In June, the IEA reported that the continent secured $900 million in new financial commitments for clean-cooking technologies. Kenya’s government, together with the African Union’s Dar es Salaam Declaration on Clean Cooking, has been promoting policies that encourage low-emission stoves and electric cookers.

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• BURN, a Nairobi-based clean-cooking firm, has distributed more than 7.3 million stoves in 11 African countries.

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• An efficient biomass stove that normally retails for about $40 can be purchased for as little as $5 after carbon-credit subsidies.

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• Mary Kavutha now pays 80 cents in electricity tokens to run an induction cooker, compared with roughly $1.15 per day on charcoal.

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• Workers assembled fuel-efficient cookstoves at BURN’s Kiambu plant on July 31, 2026.

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Peter Scott, founder and CEO of BURN, argues that scaling clean cooking on the continent depends on carbon-project finance, which provides upfront capital to lower retail prices for households. He notes that governments also benefit from revenue generated by verified emissions reductions. George Mwaniki, WRI Kenya representative and head of Air Quality for WRI Africa, cautions that carbon financing often arrives after manufacturers have already incurred production costs, making it a “second financing source” that can slow deployment. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu has emphasized that clean cooking is an essential daily need, not a luxury, underscoring the policy momentum behind the IEA conference in Dar es Salaam.

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• “It cooks much faster, and is much safer because I have young children,” — Mary Kavutha

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• “The only way clean cooking is going to scale on the continent is through carbon project finance,” — Peter Scott, founder and CEO of BURN

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• “Our biggest innovation is not the stove itself, but the financing behind it,” — Peter Scott, founder and CEO of BURN

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• “Carbon financing is more of a second financing source,” — George Mwaniki, WRI Kenya representative and head of Air Quality for WRI Africa

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