Beyond carbon emissions, severe indoor air pollution, which the World Health Organisation links to hundreds of thousands of deaths annually, has become the order of the day.

Women and children bear the brunt, spending hours near smoke-filled kitchens while collecting firewood.

Interestingly, modern cookstoves were built as a solution to this appalling situation. They burn fuel more efficiently or replace it entirely, reducing emissions, saving time, and lowering health risks. 

But there’s still a huge challenge, which is price. For households living on just a few dollars a day, even a stove costing $30 can be unaffordable.

This brings us to carbon finance, where assigning financial value to the greenhouse gas reductions achieved by clean cooking technologies enables carbon markets to create a revenue stream that can subsidise the cost of stoves. 

For some households, this turns a $40 appliance into something closer to $5. The mechanics are solid, emissions reductions are verified, converted into carbon credits, and sold to buyers globally, usually corporations seeking to offset their own carbon footprint. The income flows back into the project, reducing retail prices and scaling adoption.

Carbon Markets are a Fast-Growing Financial Sector 

Carbon markets have expanded over the last decade and currently, 113 national and subnational carbon pricing mechanisms cover approximately 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions, raising over $100 billion annually. Voluntary markets add billions more.

Africa, however, still lags behind, currently accounting for less than 2% of global carbon credits, despite enormous potential in forestry, renewable energy, and land-use projects. 

To close that gap, initiatives like the African Carbon Markets Initiative, launched at COP27, aim to generate 300 million carbon credits annually by 2030 and 1.5 billion credits by 2050, bringing $120 billion in economic value and supporting 110 million jobs.

In Nigeria, the carbon finance sector is coming up. In January 2026, the country formally launched its Carbon Market Framework at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, projecting $30 billion in annual climate-related investments. 

The National Council on Climate Change will implement trading regulations, ESG disclosure reforms, and blended-finance structures, pointing to a more powerful ecosystem for carbon finance and green industrialisation.

Why Cooking is Indispensable to Climate Action

Clean cooking is rarely a topic of discussion, but it sits at the intersection of climate, health, and development.

Traditional biomass cooking is both a deforestation driver and a public health hazard. Households consume large amounts of wood and charcoal, increasing carbon emissions. 

Smoke-filled kitchens exacerbate respiratory diseases, cardiovascular issues, and child mortality. Again, families spend a substantial portion of their limited income on fuel, while women and girls spend hours collecting firewood.

Modern stoves reduce fuel consumption by 50–70%, drastically cut emissions, and save households time and money. For climate-conscious investors and governments, this creates a huge opportunity, supporting clean cooking, which addresses emissions and also improves livelihoods.

The Price of the Counter: How Carbon Finance Lowers Stove Costs

Manufacturing a modern cookstove involves expenses, including materials, design, safety features, and logistics. To households with minimal daily income, these costs are prohibitive, but carbon markets bridge the gap.

When a stove reduces emissions, project developers can certify those reductions as carbon credits. These credits are sold on international markets to buyers, companies or governments needing offsets. Revenue from these sales is then used to subsidise stove prices, sometimes reducing them by as much as 60–90%.

This model explains why a stove costing $40 at the factory might sell for $5 to a household in Kenya, Nigeria, or Malawi. It’s not charity, it’s finance applied to climate action, converting environmental impact into affordability.

BURN Manufacturing: Scaling Clean Cooking Across Africa

Among the companies leveraging this approach, BURN Manufacturing has a niche around inclusion, standing out in the space. 

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Nairobi, BURN has become one of Africa’s largest manufacturers of clean cookstoves and a developer of carbon projects. The company has sold over five million stoves, reaching more than 27 million people across the continent.

BURN’s appliances include biomass stoves, LPG cookers, and electric induction stoves. The company goes beyond manufacturing to generate certified carbon credits from its projects. 

These credits lower the costs of the stove for households while ensuring emissions reductions are verifiable and reportable.

BURN’s model ascertains how climate finance can scale impact without depending solely on donor funding. In combining commercial operations with carbon credit revenue, the company ensures that clean cooking technologies reach communities that need them most. 

In total, BURN’s projects have avoided tens of millions of tonnes of carbon emissions and saved millions of tonnes of wood.

Beyond Affordability: Economic and Environmental Impacts

The function of carbon finance in clean cooking is far beyond lowering stove prices. In providing reliable revenue streams, it enables companies to:

• Expand production capacity and build industrial-scale manufacturing facilities.
• Invest in research and development for next-generation stoves.
• Create jobs across manufacturing, distribution, and project monitoring.

BURN, for instance, produces stoves at a scale that can reach thousands of households daily. Digital monitoring and mobile payment technologies now track stove use and verify emissions reductions, ensuring the integrity of carbon credits and maintaining buyer trust.

At the household level, modern stoves reduce time spent collecting fuel, lower monthly expenditures on charcoal or wood, and improve indoor air quality. 

Communities experience less deforestation, while women and children benefit most directly from safer kitchens and reduced workload.

Challenges in Carbon Markets

Despite the benefits, we can’t ignore the challenges in carbon markets. Verification accuracy, especially in voluntary markets, is one issue highly talked about. Some projects have been accused of overstating emissions reductions, creating “phantom credits.”

In response, standards are getting tougher. High-integrity credits now require robust monitoring, reporting, and verification systems, including real-time sensors and independent audits. 

Companies that adapt to these standards, like BURN, gain credibility in the global market while ensuring tangible local impact.

Africa’s Growing Carbon Market

Africa’s role in global carbon finance is already expanding. Beyond clean cooking, carbon markets support renewable energy, forestry, and land-use projects.

Nigeria’s Carbon Market Framework and regional initiatives like ACMI are creating infrastructure for transparent, scalable carbon trading. Investors are starting to see Africa as a viable source of carbon credits, capable of attracting billions in climate finance.

If implemented effectively, these frameworks can transform clean cooking into a commercially sustainable industry, rather than a donor-dependent initiative. Companies that align with these policies will help in connecting climate finance to households.

The Human Impact

All the policy documents, frameworks, and market statistics are important, but the ultimate impact is human. 

Cleaner stoves mean fewer hours collecting firewood, less smoke in kitchens, and improved household health. Children breathe cleaner air, women spend more time on income-generating activities, and families spend less on fuel.

In some communities, switching to modern stoves reduces wood consumption by tons per year, helping protect local forests. In aggregate, these changes add up to essential climate and development results.

The Sustainability of Clean Cooking

The clean cooking sector is highly dynamic, with innovations like electric induction stoves, powered by renewable energy, that could eventually eliminate cooking emissions in regions with reliable electricity. 

Carbon markets will likely remain a key enabler, providing financial incentives to scale adoption.

Across Africa, governments, companies, and international buyers need to work together to maintain transparency, ensure accountability, and channel capital efficiently. 

The sustainability of this sector depends on strong regulation, accurate measurement, and reliable reporting systems.

BURN’s success has shown that this is possible. Having integrated manufacturing, distribution, and carbon finance, the company offers a model for how clean cooking can be scaled effectively.

So why do some stoves cost less?

It can’t be called luck or charity, because it is climate finance in action. Carbon markets convert emissions reductions into revenue that subsidises clean technology. 

We see the impact with companies like BURN Manufacturing, millions of stoves distributed, emissions avoided, and households benefiting.

However, clean cooking is a test case for whether climate finance can improve everyday life while addressing a global challenge. In millions of African homes, that difference is tangible, cleaner kitchens, safer children, and a small but significant step toward a sustainable environment.

Sometimes, the most impactful climate solution is not a massive solar farm or a battery factory, but a better stove, and a market willing to pay for the difference.

With Nigeria seeking to scale clean cooking as one of its most immediate and investable climate solutions, BURN wants to support the country in reducing emissions, improving public health, and ensuring industrial growth.

These opportunities and challenges were discussed during a high-level media roundtable convened by BURN, bringing together senior editors and climate, business, and development reporters to examine clean cooking, carbon finance, and Nigeria’s climate ambitions. 

The roundtable explored how policy, private capital, and local manufacturing can work together to ensure scalable, high-integrity climate action.

With more than 80% of Nigerian households still dependent on biomass fuels, inefficient cooking continues to place pressure on forests, household incomes, and public health systems. 

Globally, inefficient cooking accounts for nearly one gigaton of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually, making clean cooking one of the fastest routes for Nigeria to translate its NDC 3.0 commitments and National Energy Transition Plan into measurable outcomes.

Recent policy signals, including the Nigeria Carbon Market Activation Policy (NCMAP) and the Tax Reform Act introduced in 2026, have strengthened the investment case for clean cooking by improving market clarity, enforcement, and access to private capital. 

These developments featured prominently in discussions, highlighting how aligned policy frameworks can unlock private-sector-led climate solutions.

Since launching its Nigeria operations in 2018, BURN has invested more than $9.6 million in Nigeria, including its ISO-certified assembly plant in Kano. The facility currently produces 40,000 clean cooking appliances per month, with capacity to scale to 100,000 units, supporting Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda while creating skilled local jobs.

BURN has distributed nearly 1,000,000 fuel-efficient cookstoves nationwide and employs 700 people, nearly 40% of whom are women. 

In leveraging carbon finance, BURN has subsidised stove prices by 60–100%, delivering approximately $15 million in discounts to Nigerian households and enabling families to access a $40 stove for as little as $5.

Etulan Ikpoki, country manager, BURN Nigeria, said, “Clean cooking is one of the few climate solutions Nigeria can scale quickly, credibly, and at household level. When local manufacturing, strong standards, and carbon finance work together, the results are immediate: lower emissions, healthier families, and real economic value. We welcome the government’s leadership in putting policy frameworks in place that support credible carbon markets and clean energy investment.”

“Clean cooking is a practical transition Nigeria can scale quickly, with immediate benefits for families,” said Olamide Fagbuji, senior special assistant to the President on Climate Technology & Operations and Presidential Co-Chair of the Clean Cooking Alliance. 

“When technology, strong standards, local manufacturing, and affordable financing align, it becomes a fast route to deliver our climate and energy commitments.”

“Clean cooking is one of Nigeria’s most investable climate interventions,” said Ibrahim Shelleng, senior special assistant to the President on Climate Finance & Stakeholder Engagement. 

“The priority now is converting policy momentum into bankable programmes, backed by credible monitoring, clear rules, and coordinated action.”

Across Africa, BURN has distributed approximately 6.3 million clean cooking appliances, improving the lives of 32.5 million people, reducing household fuel costs by $2.3 billion, lowering indoor air pollution by 65–100%, and protecting forests by saving more than 36.5 million tons of wood.   

This was revealed at the BURN Clean Cooking Media Roundtable in Lagos on Wednesday, where policymakers, tax experts, manufacturers and climate advisers met to confront the challenge of how 90 million households still cook.

Held on January 28 at L’Eola Hotel, Maryland, stakeholders across carbon finance, tax policy, standards regulation and manufacturing aligned with Nigeria’s 2030 universal clean cooking access goal, and defined what must happen after COP30 for that goal to remain credible.

Etulan Ikpoki, country manager at BURN Manufacturing Nigeria, anchored climate policy in everyday life. She noted that clean cooking is usually discussed in abstract terms, but is lived daily by families who cook with charcoal, firewood, and unsafe fuels.

“Clean cooking, carbon markets, industrial policy, these are often seen as technical issues, but at the core, they are human stories. They are about how families cook, how women and children breathe, how jobs are created, and how Nigeria delivers on its climate ambition in practical ways.”

Ikpoki pointed to Nigeria’s recent policy changes, including the Nigeria Carbon Market Activation Policy launched in October 2025 and ongoing tax and industrial reforms, as commendable, but warned that policy alone does not provide outcomes.

“What we are now seeing is a shift from ambition on paper to delivery on the ground. That transition depends not only on policy and investment, but on informed, accurate and responsible reporting.”

She described the roundtable as a means to demystify how clean cooking works end-to-end, from factory floor to household kitchen, from emissions measurement to carbon revenue, and from subsidy models to affordability.

During the session, BURN showcased its locally manufactured ECOA clean cookstove, designed for charcoal users transitioning away from inefficient cooking methods. The company said the stove retails below N100,000, with carbon finance used to reduce the upfront cost for low-income households. 

BURN explained that the ECOA clean cookstove sits at the centre of its clean cooking strategy in Nigeria, combining fuel efficiency, reduced household smoke, and carbon-financed affordability. 

“Clean cooking is one of the few climate solutions Nigeria can scale quickly, credibly, and at household level. When local manufacturing, strong standards, and carbon finance work together, the results are immediate—lower emissions, healthier families, and real economic value. 

“We welcome the government’s leadership in putting policy frameworks in place that support credible carbon markets and clean energy investment,” Ikpoki said.

Carbon markets and the value of certainty

That link between credibility and capital was taken further during the technical session, which walked journalists through the journey of a BURN stove, from manufacturing to first carbon credit.

Using the ECOA cookstove as a case study, the company showed how emissions reductions are measured, verified and issued as carbon credits, and how those revenues are used to lower the cost of clean cooking for households. 

The presentation explained how clean cooking projects currently operate in voluntary carbon markets, where credits trade at lower values, and how Nigeria’s emerging compliance frameworks could significantly change investor trust.

The discussion clarified that once government authorisation frameworks are fully operational, clean cooking projects become eligible for higher-value international mechanisms, including bilateral transactions and aviation offsets. 

That transition, speakers stressed, is what turns climate finance into a durable revenue stream rather than short-term subsidy.

Carbon finance rewards integrity, measurement, and regulatory alignment. Without those, scale stalls.

Tax policy as an industrial tool

The panel session, moderated by Irene Obinikpo, Call Centre Manager at BURN Manufacturing Nigeria, shifted the conversation from carbon to fiscal structure.

Chijoke Odo, Indirect Tax Partner and West Africa Trade Advisory Leader at Deloitte, explained that tax policy is usually treated narrowly as a revenue tool, when it should be used intentionally to shape industrial outcomes.

He argued that Nigeria already has incentive frameworks capable of reducing production costs for manufacturers like BURN, but that many businesses fail to fully align with them. 

More importantly, he stressed that fiscal incentives only work when government agencies act in coordination. Incentives provided by one arm of government can be cancelled out by misaligned standards enforcement or customs practices elsewhere.

Standards, safety and enforcement

That point flowed naturally into contributions from Engr. Benedict Souarede Preake, Chief Technical Officer at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Preake emphasised that clean cooking scale cannot come at the expense of safety or quality. Weak enforcement, he noted, allows sub-standard and counterfeit stoves into the market, undercutting compliant manufacturers and putting households at risk.

For clean cooking to earn public trust, he said, standards must be enforced consistently, not selectively. Quality assurance, certification, and testing are not optional add-ons; they are the backbone of market assurance.

Manufacturing, jobs and the Nigeria-First argument

From an industry perspective, Mrs Victoria Onuoha, who oversees the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria’s environment and green manufacturing agenda, described clean cooking as an industrial opportunity Nigeria cannot afford to ignore.

She argued that locally manufactured clean stoves sit at the meeting point of climate action and job creation, offering a good course to green industrialisation if supported by coherent policy.

Her position aligned with Olamide Fagbuji, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Climate Technology and Operations, who spoke on the need for policy coordination across ministries to ensure climate commitments translate into operational outcomes.

Both speakers reinforced the idea that Nigeria-First policies must move beyond slogans, embedding climate manufacturing into tax, customs, and industrial planning.

Governance, accountability and global standards

Adding a governance lens, Naomi Nwokolo, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria, situated clean cooking within Nigeria’s ESG and sustainable development commitments.

She stressed that credible climate solutions require transparency, accountability, and alignment with global best practice, especially as Nigeria seeks to attract long-term investment into its carbon market.

Clean cooking, she noted, is one of the few climate interventions that delivers measurable benefits across health, gender equity, emissions reduction, and economic resilience, but only if integrity is maintained.

Evidence from the field

The data presented throughout the session grounded the policy debate in measurable results.

Independent research noted during the roundtable showed that one BURN ECOA clean cookstove delivers average household savings of $119 per year, achieves 98% customer satisfaction, and generates a 295% internal rate of return. 

Over three years, the total social return reaches $1,000 per stove, through fuel savings, health improvements, and emissions reductions.

As of 2026, BURN has distributed over 500,000 clean cookstoves in Nigeria, positively impacting 2.2 million lives, saving 7.8 million tonnes of wood, and avoiding 11.9 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions nationwide.

The company said its 2022 financial statement is in line with its promise to publish its accounts yearly, saying the digital bank recently wrapped up its 10th anniversary, celebrating a decade of value and trust.

Reviewing the results for the H1, the Company revenue stood at N3.901 billion from N 3.35 billion in June 2021.

Cost of sales rose by 32 per cent from N947 million to N1.250 billion in 2022, while gross profit rose by 10.18 per cent to N2.651 billion as against N 2.406 billion in 2021. Operating income amounted to N1.437 billion in the period under review, higher than N 886 million in 2021.

Having begun operations in 2012, the company pivoted in 2016 to become a digital lender which developed into a fully-functioning digital financial service platform that offers cost-effective bill payments, free fund transfers, and high yield savings and investment options in addition to loans. 

The Company’s profit before tax (PBT) stood at c.N200 million for the period ended June 30, 2022.

Also interest income amounted to N580 million while adopting sound risk management practices that saw Impairment reduce by 7% amidst a challenging macro environment.

The Company said “despite these headwinds, the group was able to grow loan disbursements and introduction of a new product line; Carbon Zero that has so far, done GMV of N1 billion plus since its introduction in December 2021.

“Carbon Zero, its latest flagship product gives users the flexibility to shop for what they love, when they want, without breaking the bank and pay back at zero per cent interest rate. This flexibility has been extended offline and recently infused into the Carbon app.

“The company has also intensified focus on driving its retail deposits for the past few years which has supported a three per cent decrease in its cost of funds over the years and continues to grow remarkably in its retail business.”

Speaking on the Bank’s performance, Ngozi Dozie, the co-founder and CEO of Carbon Finance, noted, that “we are on the path to being everywhere our consumers go, our products and services are built on the promise of playing a fundamental role in their lives by providing versatile solutions to their needs.

“We will continue to share our finances as we adhere to a culture of transparency and accountability. It’s important for us to make finance work for everyone, and Carbon is perfectly positioned to become the one app customers can use to manage their entire financial lives.”

Carbon is a credit-led, Pan-African digital bank. Carbon aims to further its mission of providing modern financial products and building value-based relationships for customers. As a result, Carbon is uniquely positioned for significant growth and impact.

You can find the full report here