COP31 in Antalya: Zimbabwe's National Clean Cooking Project

The 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) is under way in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. Among the programmes being presented is a Zimbabwean one: the National Clean Cooking Project, a plan to put 1,000,000 cookstoves into homes across 58 Rural District Councils. It is led by Connect Water Private Limited, with Terra Verde Carbon Asset Consulting as carbon partner.

The programme in six numbers

• 1,000,000 cookstoves in the national roll-out
• 58 Rural District Councils covered
• ~2.25 million tCO₂e of emission reductions a year (a planning estimate, subject to verification)
• 6 million+ Zimbabweans reached, including around 3 million rural women and girls
• 20% of revenues directed to Community Development Trust Funds under SI 48
• 24 months on the readiness pathway, with pilots in Gwanda and Hwange

Why a national programme, not a project

Most clean cooking credits come from stand-alone projects. This programme is designed the other way round: it is built inside Zimbabwe's carbon-market framework from day one. Statutory Instrument 48 of 2025 sets out ZiCMA approval, the Zimbabwe Carbon Registry, a sovereign allocation of credits and a mandatory community share. The programme also contributes to Zimbabwe's NDC 3.0 and is structured to work with Article 6 cooperation.

Integrity at scale

Buyers have become more demanding about cookstove credits, and rightly so. The programme answers with:

• a Gold Standard pathway;
• independently tested stoves, with testing in Zimbabwe coming before any distribution;
• QR and serial-number tracking of every stove, and digital MRV;
• conservative estimates that buyers can stress-test;
• an FPIC manual in English, Shona and Ndebele, with ward and household consent records.

No stove is distributed before registration, free, prior and informed consent, and independent testing.

The stoves

The proposed technology is the ECOA range from BURN. The ECOA Char NCW reports 72% thermal efficiency, up to 65% fuel savings and a 5–7 year lifespan. The ECOA Wood LongLife reports 53% efficiency, up to 71% fuel savings, 81% less smoke than a three-stone fire and a 7–10 year lifespan. These are supplier-reported figures, which is why independent testing in Zimbabwe comes first.

Safe water alongside clean cooking

Rural families often boil drinking water over the same wood fire. So every household that receives a stove is also offered a 20-litre ceramic water filter: one visit, one consent record, one QR-tracked household, two products. A silver-treated ceramic pot removes bacteria and sediment using gravity alone, with no power and no chemicals.

Safe-water projects can earn their own credits for avoided boiling under Gold Standard safe-water methodologies, and they deliver SDG 3 and SDG 6 benefits. The planning range is 0.25 to 0.5 tCO₂e per filter per year. A pilot of 10,000 filters in Gwanda and Hwange would be bundled with the first stove pilot.

One principle is fixed: fuel saved by the stove and fuel saved by not boiling are measured on separate baselines in the digital MRV, and each tonne is credited only once.

How it is financed

Hardware for the full roll-out is estimated at US$27–28.5 million before distribution, MRV, project development and community costs. Private capital is planned through a prescribed-asset bond with Datvest (CBZ Asset Management), supported in principle by the Ministry of Finance in a Letter of Intent dated 4 July 2026. Because most of each hardware order is payable before shipment, forward purchase and prepayment from offtakers is what unlocks the pilot.

What the team is doing in Antalya

The delegation is using COP31 to start conversations with government counterparts, Article 6 buyers, development finance institutions, corporate buyers and integrity bodies, through SADC and Africa Pavilion side events, technical sessions and bilateral meetings. Any discussion touching the sovereign share goes through the Ministry and ZiCMA. The goal is signed paper: offtake interest, anchor capital, visible sovereign support, and recognition as a regional model for clean cooking.

The core message

Zimbabwe is ready to deliver high-integrity clean cooking credits at national scale, under a sovereign framework, with communities as co-owners. It rests on three pillars: integrity, scale and shared value (health, forests and household savings, with 20% of revenues owned by communities).

All emission-reduction figures are planning estimates, subject to methodology selection, baseline survey and verification. Stove performance figures are supplier-reported. To discuss the programme, get in touch.