The clean cooking sector has been struggling for many years to get their voice heard…..and when I say too many years, I am counting over 40 right now. It is of no surprise to read the latest article from the Clean Cooking Alliance, as they shared their latest news from their participation at COP27 in Egypt.

“Worldwide, 2.4 billion people lack access to clean cooking, which results in millions of premature deaths, large quantities of climate pollutants, unabated forest degradation in global biodiversity hot spots, and a continuous burden on women and children typically charged with collecting fuel wood.

Given this enormous impact, it is disgraceful that clean cooking solutions attract such a miniscule fraction of international climate finance and private capital. The current level of funding and investment in the clean cooking sector has not matched the global magnitude of the challenge, hovering in the tens of millions of dollars, and is highly concentrated in a small number of countries, technologies, and ventures. If the funding and financing trend continues along current trends, 2.1 billion people will still be without access in 2030 and it will take more than 1,000 years to achieve universal access to clean cooking”.

What the Clean Cooking Alliance states resonates very well with the funding road Simoshi went through during its early years. It was difficult to get donors to believe in the model we were presenting back in 2016, which relied - and still does - 100% in the revenue streams generated from the sale of carbon credits. Back then it was a risky model, a new company that had not yet been through any issuance….

Nevertheless, Simoshi successfully went through 3 verifications, issuing over 14,000 Certified Emission Reductions and Verified Emission Reductions. Right now, we are about to close our fourth verification exercise. And do you know what the most gratifying feeling of all is? Not depending on donor funding to support our current 100 schools included under our Project Activity!