Enhancing Livelihoods and Health in Rural Communities Through Energy-efficient Cookstoves

Globally, around 2.4 billion people cook their meals on open fires using solid biomass fuels such as wood and charcoal, contributing to a carbon footprint similar to that of the global aviation sector. Smoke from open fire cooking is also a significant health threat, contributing to 3.2 million premature deaths annually. 

To address these challenges, leading global carbon project developer and social impact investor C-Quest Capital (CQC) distributes clean, energy-efficient cookstoves that can be readily deployed to rural communities. The cookstoves improve the communities' health and lives while combatting climate change. CQC's unique programme features a double-stove system that allows families to cook food while mitigating the need to use an open fire in parallel. This ensures that the health, environmental and time-saving benefits of using energy-efficient cookstoves can be fully realised.

To drive the adoption of clean cookstoves across Southeast Asia, GenZero, a Temasek-owned investment platform company focused on accelerating global decarbonisation, funded CQC's programme in markets such as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The proceeds were used to deploy clean cookstoves to 650,000 rural households, with plans to further scale the programme's reach to 1 million households.