The Cookstove Integrity Standard — Why Our Numbers Are Different

Last week we introduced the integrity gap — the space between what carbon credits claim to deliver and what they actually do. This week, we explain one specific part of our answer to it: the iRise Carbon clean cookstove verification standard.

Clean cookstoves are one of the most important tools in the voluntary carbon market. When a household switches from an open fire to an improved cookstove, the reduction in fuel consumption is real, measurable, and repeatable. The carbon credit that represents that reduction should be equally real, measurable, and repeatable.

In too many programmes, it is not.

“The problem is not that cookstove credits are a bad idea. The problem is that too many programmes issue credits based on assumptions about stoves they have never verified are actually in use.”

How iRise Carbon's crediting model works

iRise Carbon operates its clean cookstove programme under the Gold Standard Programme of Activities using the TPDDTEC methodology. Our programme is the first Gold Standard PoA in Malawi. But methodology alone does not guarantee integrity — the verification process does.

Here is what our household-level distribution process looks like:

1. 1A field officer travels to the target household on the day of distribution
2. 2The stove is distributed, demonstrated, and the household beneficiary is registered in iVerify — iRise Carbon's real-time MRV platform
3. 3GPS coordinates are captured at the household location — not at the district office, not estimated from a village centre
4. 4A geotagged photograph of the stove in situ, with the beneficiary, is captured on the same device and time-stamped automatically
5. 5Household details — family size, cooking fuel previously used, consent documentation — are completed before the field officer leaves
6. 6The credit record is created only once the household record is complete and verified

Why 1.92 tCO₂e per stove per year

iRise Carbon issues credits at 1.92 tCO₂e per stove per year — our verified figure, based on the specific fuel displacement measured in Malawian households using this stove type under this methodology.

This number matters. Some programmes issue credits at much higher rates using optimistic assumptions about stove usage and fuel displacement. When a buyer purchases a credit at an inflated rate, they are paying for an emissions reduction that did not happen.

Our 1.92 figure is conservative by design. It reflects what we can actually verify — not what a model might project under ideal conditions.

The 14-year crediting period

Each stove under the iRise Carbon programme carries a 14-year crediting period. This is the period over which the emissions reduction is credited — based on the expected operational life of the stove and a conservative estimate of continued use.

Buyers purchasing iRise Carbon cookstove credits are not buying a one-year assumption. They are buying into a long-term, monitored programme with documented household records for every credit issued.

“A cookstove credit is only as real as the household data behind it. Ours is captured on the day, at the door, by someone who was there.”

What this means for buyers

If you are purchasing clean cookstove carbon credits, here are the questions that separate a high-integrity programme from one that is not:

• Can you show me household-level GPS records for every stove in my credit batch?
• What is your crediting rate per stove per year — and how was it calculated?
• What happens to credits if a household record fails verification audit?
• When was your last third-party verification, and can I see the report?

At iRise Carbon, all of these questions have documented, auditable answers. On Friday, our Carbon Director Mussa Kamanula explains what this process looks like from the field — in his own words.

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