The 2023 Clean Cooking Industry Snapshot, published by the Clean Cooking Alliance, reveals significant growth and transformation in the clean cooking sector. Investment in clean cooking enterprises surged to an all-time high, with a notable rise in debt capital overshadowing equity and grants. The industry's revenue also broke previous records, largely fuelled by carbon finance which has become a key driver in recent years. This trend towards carbon finance and increased investment in carbon-credit generating enterprises reflects a shift in the sector's dynamics. Despite this growth, the industry continues to be dominated by a few large players, particularly those involved in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The snapshot emphasises the need for continued investment and innovation to achieve universal access to clean cooking solutions.
We see notable growth opportunity in renewable biomass-fuelled modern energy, especially in Africa and other parts of the world where local feedstock from farming waste can be converted into highly efficient and low-emission pelletised fuel. Connecting smart modern cooking devices, which have embedded IoT sensors that measure daily cooking activity, to the ixo Internet of Impacts blockchain, produces the highest-quality digital carbon credits in real time, with automated claims processing using Causal AI. Families in emerging economies, such as Zambia, save up to 50% of their household expenditure on cooking, relative to charcoal. Women save many hours a day not having to make fires, and children are no longer exposed to the harmful fumes from charcoal, which is a leading causes of respiratory illness. Replacing charcoal or wood-burning fires with waste biomass means that hardwood forests are preserved.
Emerging is a digital platform developed by ixo that leverages the ixo blockchain and AI technologies to bring transparency, efficiency and integrity to carbon credit generation and offsetting. This aligns with the industry's shift towards carbon finance to scale up access to clean cooking, using high-quality carbon credits. The first project implemented on the ixo Emerging Platform, operated by SupaMoto Zambia, is one of only two projects qualifying as producing high-quality clean cooking credits by the University of Berkeley Carbon Trading Project.
As a winner of the Digital Innovation Challenge for Clean Cooking earlier this year, Emerging, powered by ixo, is now well-positioned to lead these market developments with an end-to-end solution that can be offered to all members of the Alliance, which includes almost all clean cookstove manufacturers, investors, and project developers. This solution is described as a Digital Flywheel for scaling access to clean cooking, using digital measurement, reporting, verification, and financing. This platform is now in full production and starting to scale into more countries. Check out the video below.
Digital technology-driven approaches are contributing to the sector's growth, addressing key challenges and capitalising on new opportunities identified in the 2023 industry snapshot.
