Existing carbon offset protocols for improved cookstoves do not require emissions testing. They are based only on estimated reductions in the use of non-renewable biomass generated by a given stove, and use simplistic calculations to convert those fuel savings to imputed emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). Yet recent research has shown that different cookstoves vary tremendously in their combustion quality, and thus in their emissions profiles of both CO2 and other products of incomplete combustion.

Carbon markets are considered a key policy tool to achieve cost-effective climate mitigation1, 2. Project-based carbon market mechanisms allow private sector entities to earn tradable emissions reduction credits from mitigation projects. The environmental integrity of project-based mechanisms has been subject to controversial debate and extensive research1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, in particular for projects abating industrial waste gases with a high global warming potential (GWP).