C-Quest Capital LLC (CQC) has entered into an emissions reduction purchase agreement with BP Products North America Inc. (“bp”) under which CQC will finance the deployment of 400,000 clean and efficient cookstoves in Angola and bp will offtake the carbon credits generated from this activity. CQC and bp share an ambition to expand the program, with the goal of scaling total deployment to 1 million stoves in Angola within five years.
Emission reductions will be generated by reducing the use of unsustainably harvested firewood, switching to sustainable sources of woody biomass fuels burnt in a highly efficient manner. The initial investment is expected to improve the health and well-being of over 2 million people, with the greatest benefits flowing to women, girls, and infants, who will spend less time carrying firewood over long distances and be less exposed to toxic air pollution from open fires.
For the first time, the time saved by women from using CQC’s efficient stoves will be monitored and verified under Verra’s SDVista program, generating a sustainable development unit that is transferrable in addition to the carbon credits. Over the next decade, this initial investment will deliver approximately 15 million high-quality voluntary carbon credits.
“Investing in carbon reductions can be transformative, and can deliver benefits beyond environmental, as this program demonstrates,” says CQC’s CEO and founder Ken Newcombe. “By choosing to work with CQC, investors can significantly improve the lives of some of the world’s poorest and ensure their capital has a lasting impact.”
The transaction is the third and final leg of a three-pronged program being implemented by CQC to improve the lives of 3.5 million rural families across Sub-Saharan Africa. The first was signed in March with Macquarie Group, to fund the distribution of clean cookstoves to one million households in Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania, improving the lives of over 5 million people and generating an estimated 40 million carbon credits over 10 years. The second was signed with Shell in mid-April, to distribute cookstoves to 1.5 million households across Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Uganda, and Kenya, benefitting more than 7 million people and yielding 60 million carbon credits over 10 years.
To date, C-Quest Capital has delivered improvements to the lives of more than 20 million people across sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, and South and Southeast Asia, while reducing in excess of 5 million tonnes of CO2. The firm’s projects are designed to deliver maximum development beyond emissions reductions, such as improved health and women’s empowerment. For more information, please see cquestcapital.com.
For more information, please contact [email protected]