Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM)a leading provider of carbon offset solutions in the Asia Pacific region, has received approval from carbon credit registry Verra for a pioneering cookstove project in Papua New Guinea.
The Cookstove project aims to provide communities in Papua New Guinea with cleaner and more efficient cooking solutions, reducing their reliance on traditional open fires.
This project, titled ‘Papua New Guinea Healthier Homes, Healthier Forests’, will use carbon finance to address health and environmental issues in the country. The approval of Verra marks a significant milestone for TEM as it is the first initiative of its kind in Papua New Guinea.
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Part of Papua New Guinea’s population relies on the region’s widespread method of cooking using open fire, an approach that burns a significant amount of firewood and contributes to air pollution, which poses a serious health hazard to people the local population.
By introducing stoves, an environmentally friendly cooking technology, TEM’s project is expected to prevent the emission of nearly 3 million tons of CO2 over ten years while delivering significant health and environmental benefits to the country’s residents.
TEM will launch the first phase of the project in the Southern Highlands in the coming months, delivering more than 100,000 upgraded cooking stoves to local communities free of charge. The project will later be expanded to other parts of the country as a majority of households, approximately 80%, still use indoor open-fire cooking methods.
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TEM CEO Adrian Enrigh expressed his excitement at this significant achievement in the company’s development, following a successful trial period in 2023.
He said: “The cookers will deliver environmental, health and community benefits to PNG’s Southern Highlands, by introducing local communities to more efficient and cleaner cooking practices.”
TEM’s Cookstove project made history as the first of its kind to be approved under the new version 1.2 of the Verra Method VMR0006which was launched in July 2023 with an emphasis on stricter integrity standards.
