When Simoshi first issued it’s first batch of carbon dioxide emission reductions in November 2019, we had a big concern as to where we could find potential buyers. We had no former experience in the trading of carbon credits. The market had always been very negative with the pricing trends, the attitude of corporates offsetting their carbon footprint, while the uncertainty of the future of the Paris Agreement made things look gloomy.

As we write this post, Simoshi has gone through two verifications and the total issuance came down to 12,407 carbon credits. Today, there are only 85 carbon credits left and still available on the Climate Neutral Now platform. This on-line platform has been a fantastic space to promote our activities, a 100% free service provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Covid-19 pandemic has not made things easy, and although the third verification is currently underway, a small issuance is expected and a consequence of schools being closed for most of the past two years. If schools are closed, no institutional improved cook stoves are being used to prepare the children’s meals.

Schools will not re-open until January 2022, which was announced during the last presidential address. While we await for vaccination to progress within teachers and school support staff, we are alway grateful for what we have achieved to date. Because every single sale of carbon credits has made the transition of 3-stone fires to energy efficient cook stoves a reality, and the support of the cooking upgrade in schools is still on-going since we first started back in 2016.