Grace Ashiru
BURN Manufacturing, a global leader in producing, distributing, and developing carbon projects for clean cookstoves, has announced the successful acquisition of a subsequent carbon project investment from Key Carbon Ltd. (previously known as CNR “Carbon Neutral Royalty” and hereafter referred to as “Key” or “KC”).
This investment, which is backed by Cartesian, a worldwide private equity firm with a focus on decarbonization and climate mitigation projects, aims to enhance the distribution of electric cookstoves in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, as well as biomass stoves in Nigeria, DRC, Tanzania, and Mozambique over the forthcoming two years.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the use of traditional cooking fuels such as firewood or charcoal has numerous detrimental impacts on health, the environment, the economy, and gender dynamics. Currently, it’s estimated that around 950 million people in the region depend on these traditional fuels and inefficient technologies for cooking.
Investing in BURN’s top-tier electric and biomass cookstoves is expected to directly benefit around 1.5 million individuals, while also preventing more than 12 million tons of carbon emissions. Thanks to carbon financing, BURN has been able to lower the prices of its cookstoves, making them more affordable for families with lower incomes.
“BURN’s cutting-edge electric and biomass stoves have been changing the lives of over 24 million people since 2014. With the support from this recent funding, we’re set to extend our innovative solutions to an additional 1.5 million people, helping to cut down over 12 million tons of carbon emissions in the next seven years. Last year, we received $25 million in financing from Key Carbon, which helped us make our cookstoves more affordable. We’re thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Key Carbon.
Our ultimate aim is to secure $1 billion in carbon financing to ensure every household on the continent has access to a clean cooking appliance,” said Peter Scott, the Founder and CEO of BURN.
Luke Leslie, Co-Founder and CEO of Key Carbon, remarked, “Through the development of attractive investment products, Key Carbon is successfully drawing institutional investors and corporations to the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). The VCM holds immense promise for propelling climate and biodiversity efforts forward, and for benefiting the world’s most vulnerable populations.
However, this potential can only be realized if more global asset managers and corporations come to view carbon credits as a viable asset class for investment. Our recent deal with Cartesian further validates Key Carbon’s position as a leading channel for investors looking to fund significant decarbonization initiatives and obtain high-quality carbon credits.”
Peter Yu, Founder and Managing Partner at Cartesian, stated, “BURN stoves bring about numerous benefits to our planet, from enhancing health and life quality to improving the global environment. We are thrilled to join forces with Key Carbon to aid in BURN’s ongoing growth throughout Africa.”
