EcoAct’s Sudan Low Smoke Cookstove Project has today been announced as Best Carbon Offsetting Project in the Environmental Finance 10th Annual Voluntary Carbon Market Awards.
The awards are selected by carbon market industry participants who vote for the projects and companies that they believe are driving change in the world of voluntary carbon finance.
EcoAct’s Sudan project uses carbon finance to operate the project in the El Fasher area of Sudan. The Sudan cleaner cookstoves project is the first registered carbon credit project in Sudan as well as the first to be developed in a conflict zone.
The low smoke stoves distributed through the project radically improve the health of women and children in Darfur, who are often impacted from breathing in smoke generated by indoor wood cookstove fires. Low-smoke stoves prevent indoor air pollution, which kills more people every year than malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis combined (The Lancet, The Global Burden of Disease Study GBD 2017). Women and children are most vulnerable to this risk.
At the same time, the project reduces carbon emissions that contribute to climate change as well as tackling the impacts of environmental degradation caused by deforestation for wood fuel. Many households in Sudan use biomass for cooking and intense conflict for several years has caused damage to native tree cover.
Gerald Maradan, co-founder and CEO of EcoAct said:
“We are delighted that our project has been recognised by Environmental Finance and industry peers as the best international carbon finance project. We are extremely proud of the difference this project makes to people’s lives as well as the environmental benefits it brings and our ambition is to reach more people through carbon finance, bringing wider-reaching impacts in tackling climate change through sustainable development.”
EcoAct developed and continues to run the project with NGO Practical Action. The third phase of the project, that will build on the 12,000 stoves already delivered to households in El Fasher is financed by German company Friedrich Scharr KG.
The Sudan Low Smoke Stoves project meets the strict requirements of The Gold Standard carbon credit certification process which requires projects to reduce carbon emissions and deliver measurable sustainable development and environmental benefits to local communities.
About EcoAct
EcoAct is a privately held international sustainability consultancy and project developer, headquartered in Paris, with 120 employees in offices across France, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States and Kenya. The company has unmatched depth and breadth in delivering holistic solutions to enable businesses to reduce their carbon emissions while driving commercial performance. EcoAct has undertaken carbon reduction and sustainability projects for some of the world’s leading brands while also developing and partnering with carbon offset, biodiversity and economic development programs across Africa, Asia, China and South America. EcoAct is a CDP gold partner, a founding member of ICROA, a strategic partner in the implementation of the Gold Standard for the Global Goals and reports to the UN Global Compact.
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