UN carbon market adopts two methodologies for cleaner household cooking

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on London Daily News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: The UN’s Article 6.4 Supervisory Body has adopted two methodologies allowing eligible cleaner-cooking projects to seek carbon credits under the Paris Agreement’s carbon-market mechanism
• Announced on 9 October, the rules cover more efficient wood- and charcoal-burning cookstoves and a broader transition to cleaner household cooking
• The decision establishes how emissions reductions must be calculated and monitored; it does not mean that any credits have already been issued

🔭 The context: Carbon-credit methodologies set the requirements for determining whether projects deliver credible emissions reductions
• The new rules include safeguards designed to ensure reductions are real, additional and conservatively calculated
• The supervisory body also adopted its first tool for assessing reversal risks in cleaner-cooking and other activities that reduce the use of non-renewable biomass
• This addresses the possibility that previously counted emissions reductions could later be undone

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Cleaner cooking can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and pressure on forests, while improving household air quality
• Robust accounting rules are essential to ensure that carbon credits reflect genuine climate benefits rather than overstated or reversed reductions

⏭️ What’s next: Eligible projects can now seek approval under the adopted methodologies, subject to assessment and verification before any credits are issued
• The reversal-risk tool may be refined as better evidence becomes available
• At COP31, the supervisory body is also expected to present its annual report to Paris Agreement Parties, who may guide the mechanism’s future development

📈 One stat: 2.1 billion people still rely on open fires, inefficient stoves and polluting fuels for cooking, highlighting the potential scale of the clean-cooking transition

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