Gold Standard CEO Calls for Businesses to Be Brave and take Responsibility During New York Climate Week 

• Margaret Kim engaging directly with cookstove projects in East Africa, instead of travelling to New York for climate week. 
• Gold Standard calls for businesses to take responsibility and action for their impact on the climate as they release “Nine Actions Businesses Should Take on Their Journey to Net Zero”. 

As New York Climate Week makes clear the need for urgent action, Gold Standard’s CEO, Margaret Kim is highlighting the existing impact and future potential of carbon finance directly on the ground with cookstove partner projects in Kenya and Uganda.  

Domestic cooking is largely outside the productive economy, making it very difficult to subsidise or regulate, and therefore difficult for traditional funding to reach. As a 

source of unfettered finance, the carbon market is part of the solution to the clean cooking challenge. Improved cookstoves are crucial in countries like Uganda and 

Kenya, where traditional methods of cooking have severe health, environmental, and economic impacts. Clean cooking is a real climate challenge and is an important and credible way to act on unabated emissions. 

 While the VCM has been responding to scrutiny over the last few years. The spotlight is valuable, encouraging the market to continue to strive for the highest possible integrity. However, it can also dampen demand for credits, putting the expansion of clean cooking in regions like Sub Saharan Africa at risk. 

Key stats  

• About 28% of the global population, roughly 2.3 billion people, cook over open fires. In Africa, that equates to nearly four in five Africans using traditional stoves. 
• 775 clean cooking projects in Gold Standard’s portfolio, 118 projects in Uganda, 99 projects in Kenya 
• Gold Standard-certified clean cooking projects have prevented over 90 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of the annual fossil fuel emissions of Belgium. 
• $267 in economic value created per carbon credit issued from a clean cookstove project. 
• $465 in economic value created per carbon credit from domestic biogas projects. 
• $2.6 billion in net benefits generated annually by Gold Standard's improved cooking solutions portfolio. 
• $11.6 billion in total benefits accrued over the lifetime of these projects. 

Having been the first standard to release a clean cooking methodology, Gold Standard are pioneers in this space. While in East Africa Margaret Kim will visit two projects: 

• EcoSafi in Nairobi, a pioneering clean cooking biofuel utility whose stoves are cheaper, hotter, cleaner and greener than the traditional counterpart. EcoSafi’s innovative ‘tool and fuel’ strategy, which combines advanced gasifying cookstoves with sustainable biofuel (derived from sugarcane waste), has enabled it to issue credits under Gold Standard’s Metered and Measured Energy Cooking Devices methodology, which quantifies emission reductions from cooking devices through direct measurement of energy or fuel consumed. EcoSafi’s project transcends carbon reduction, fostering sustainable development and delivering real change for people’s lives. 
• Simoshi in Kampala, a social enterprise dedicated to improving the livelihoods of low-income individuals, especially women and children. The Simoshi project makes a verified contribution to nine of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through saving money, protecting forests, reducing emissions, and improving the health of the communities. Simoshi is proud of its strong relationships with local schools, its provision of ongoing support in terms of staff training and annual maintenance ensures the longevity of the project’s impact. The institutional improved cookstoves (IICS) usage and kitchen environment are monitored at least 7 times during the year and checks are made to ensure that the replaced traditional stoves have been dismantled and are no longer in use.

This hands-on approach at the highest level demonstrates Gold Standard’s unwavering commitment maximising the sustainable development impacts from the projects that use its methodologies, while continuing to set the benchmark for verified climate impact. 

Margaret Kim, CEO of Gold Standard said 

“Leadership means not just talking about climate action but doing it, especially in regions where the impact is most needed. This is a journey. We need to embrace progress in the right direction. Gold Standard is dedicated to delivering real change for people and the planet through verified climate impact. That is why I've come to Kenya and Uganda — to listen, engage, and see how our projects, like those with Eco Safi and Simoshi, deliver genuine and measurable benefits to people who need it most. While carbon credits are the mechanism that allows clean cooking projects like this to grow, the real story lies in the lives transformed.” 

Virginia Echavarria, Founder of Simoshi said 

“In an era of advancing technology it is shocking that 2.3 billion people worldwide still rely on traditional cooking methods. At Simoshi we’re really proud to say our cookstove project has achieved nine verifiable and measurable Sustainable Development Goals, reflecting both the benefits experienced by our users at a local level, but also the macro impact of the project. High integrity carbon finance is the backbone to sustain the cooking transition, no other tool has ever proved to have such a substantial impact in the sector". 

Tom Price, Founder of EcoSafi said 

“EcoSafi clean stoves allow households and commercial businesses to stop using charcoal and instead use sugar cane waste pellets. 10KG of wood equals 1kg of sugar cane waste. Before our clean cooking program, households had no alternative to charcoal besides electricity or LPG, which are expensive. Carbon credits are notoriously difficult to verify, thanks to our partnership with Gold Standard we built unmatched certainty and measurability directly into our process to produce trusted, premium carbon credits which have maximum impact on households in Kenya.” 

As Kim demonstrates on the ground in Kenya, the path to global net zero requires more than just promises — it requires tangible actions that deliver genuine benefits. 

Read ‘Nine Actions Businesses Should do on their Journey to Net Zero’, This is why Gold Standard has published its ‘Nine Actions Businesses Should do on their Journey to Net Zero’, a set of 9 guiding principles to support businesses trying to do the right thing for the climate. We are running out of time. 

Owen Hewlett, Chief Technical Officer, Gold Standard said 

“We’re in the age of urgency. People and businesses are waking up to the fact that we need to act, fast, as they see the effects of climate change all around them. Yet we’re still not going fast enough. Together at Climate Week NYC, we need to break down barriers that are holding us back. It’s time to lead".