Copenhagen, Denmark, April 10, 2019 – Nexus for Development reached an agreement with the Copenhagen Airport to support the airport’s intention to voluntarily offset its carbon emissions through the purchase of carbon credits. Copenhagen Airport pledged its support to the Improved Cookstoves (ICS) Programme in Laos, as they continue to build upon their commitment to fighting climate change. The project results in Copenhagen Airport achieving carbon neutrality this year. This agreement was made possible with the support of the engineering consultancy NIRAS.

The Improved Cookstoves Programme, run jointly by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and ARMI, contributes towards poverty alleviation in Laos through the development of a sustainable consumption and production chain of cleaner and more fuel-efficient ICS. Since 2013, this Programme has promoted the efficient use of wood and charcoal, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Nexus for Development has been supporting the ICS Programme in Laos since 2015 to leverage the carbon markets, which provide an alternative source of funding to scale the Programme’s impact. This additional finance facilitates training activities for stove producers and retailers, promotion of the stoves in new markets, product monitoring, and testing, and management of a certification and quality labeling standard.

Thanks to its market-based approach, the Programme successfully ensured the local production and distribution of more than 270,000 improved cookstoves, reaching more than a million of the country’s 6.7 million inhabitants. With the widespread use of cookstoves across the country, the programme has achieved a threshold whereby through measured efficiency improvements has allowed for independently verified carbon emission reductions.

By selecting this project, the Copenhagen Airport is also addressing two major challenges faced in Southeast Asia, particularly in Laos – deforestation and health. In Laos, deforestation is a critical concern with approximately 134,000 hectares of forest disappearing annually (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization), which represents an annual loss of 0.6% of the total land area (44% of forest cover has already been lost over the last five decades). Deforestation has namely occurred because wood is still the dominant source of cooking fuel. According to the World Health Organization, its combustion within traditional stoves is the first source of indoor air pollution, which is the cause of 5,985 deaths every year in Laos.

The verified and certified emission reductions from the ICS Programme are under the Gold Standard, a rigorous global voluntary standard for carbon offset projects.