- Date
- 5th February 2024
- Categories
- Carbon Credit, electric cooking, Metered Methodology
ATEC has announced the validation by Gold Standard of its pioneering Modern Energy Cooking project under the new Methodology for Metered & Measured Energy Cooking Devices (MMMECD) – signalling a new digital era for clean cooking projects based on 100% verifiable usage data off every device.
Climate Impact Partners, experts in the Voluntary Carbon Market for more than 25 years , partnered with Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS), an eight-year research programme funded by UK Aid (FCDO), to develop the new and innovative methodology, which provides efficient, high quality quantification of emissions impact from metered clean cooking devices.
ATEC as a global leader in electric cooking & IoT has applied the methodology for a programme of activities across 2 markets of Bangladesh and Cambodia, distributing their electric induction cookstoves to bring modern and clean cooking to communities where it is currently inaccessible. ATEC, Climate Impact Partners and MECS successfully took this ATEC programme of activities through the Gold Standard certification registration & validation process, continuing to build confidence in the application of the methodology for a range of modern cooking solutions. 100% data-verified credits are now going through the verification process with first issuance to incur early 2024 to ATEC’s carbon offtake partner, Engie.
“Our work with MECS, Climate Impact Partners & Gold Standard to be the global pioneer in digital verification of cookstove carbon credits was going to be challenging,” says Ben Jeffreys, CEO of ATEC, “but as per recent peer-reviewed research by UC Berkeley that points to potential over-crediting in traditional field-verified credits, our thesis remains that the investment in credit integrity with IoT and new methodologies will pay off in the long term. ATEC will continue to lead the way in the sector in ensuring that a ton of emission reductions is a ton, giving carbon credit markets the confidence to invest at the large scale required to globally decarbonise cooking.”
Digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (D-MRV) has emerged as the best tool to address integrity concerns for Modern Energy Cooking (MEC), as in other sectors. By enabling the collection, reporting, and application of real-time usage data from individual MEC products, D-MRV ensures high integrity in carbon emission reduction claims and reduces the need for costly and resource-intensive field-based verification activities.
ATEC’s patented eCook stove accurately tracks usage on each device via a global sim, then through its proprietary dMRV Data Platform, processes these into certified Gold Standard credits. According to Marion Verles, CEO of SustainCERT, “Digital innovations, such as ATEC’s eCook devices will significantly improve the reliability, efficiency and credibility of monitoring systems, and combined with digital verification are emerging as key drivers to scaling carbon markets with integrity.”
Ed Brown, MECS Research Director at Loughborough University said: “Digital monitoring, reporting and verification (D-MRV) methodologies like the MMMECD are essential as a means to greater transparency and integrity whilst also reducing transaction costs. The ATEC project is an important milestone in achieving one of the first validations for a D-MRV transaction in the Modern Energy Cooking Sector and it can be an important demonstration for other projects”.
In the continued pursuit of credit integrity and transparency, ATEC & MECS Programme are piloting equitable sharing of carbon credits through a data-verified, payment-integrated “Cook-to-Earn” model with Fair Climate Fund as the buyer. The same IoT data infrastructure used for verification and revenue sharing of carbon credits, is likely to become increasingly important in accurately demonstrating the co-benefits of SDG impacts from Modern Energy Cooking projects.
Featured Image: Courtesy of ATEC.