Cookstove Carbon Credits in the Climate Transition
With the aim of bringing price discovery and transparency to the carbon credit market, ICE is hosting carbon credit auctions for leading developers. The auctions aim to provide a steady supply of carbon credits to market participants, while giving developers access to a wide range of potential buyers. As part of the auction service, we are running a series of ICE carbon credit market education webinars to cover the different features of all asset classes.
ICE Futures Europe will host an auction for UpEnergy’s Improved Cookstove Programme in Uganda. UpEnergy is a social impact business that makes clean technologies, from cleaner cooking to safe water, accessible to people and communities in low-income countries around the world.
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 950 million people rely on biomass, including charcoal, for daily household cooking - a number that is expected to reach 1.7 billion by 2050*. UpEnergy’s Improved Cookstove Programme aims to address the unsustainable use of charcoal for cooking and help ease the burden on local forests by reducing deforestation related to charcoal production.
Ahead of our auction of Cookstove credits, we invite you to join a webinar to learn about how cleaner cooking efforts can address the demand for charcoal, reduce emissions and go further, protecting local forests and improve the livelihoods of those most vulnerable to climate risks.
*Source: Green Africa: A growth and resilience agenda for the continent
Speakers
Mr. Gordon S. Bennett has been Managing Director of Utility Markets at Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. since February 2015. Mr. Bennett is responsible for the sales and business development of ICE’s global environmental, European and Asian natural gas and power, and global coal portfolios. He is a member of the board of ICE Endex, ICE Futures Abu Dhabi and co-chairs the Sustainable Finance Working Group at ICE. He also contributes to a wide range of external environmental and energy market initiatives including being a member of the Nature Based Solutions Taskforce of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the Transition to Net Zero Working Group of the Climate Financial Risk Forum and the Advisory Board of the University of Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group.
Prior to ICE, Mr. Bennett spent 12 years at the global energy broker, Spectron, joining as Group Financial Controller in 2002. During his tenure at Spectron he held several Board roles including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer. After the acquisition of Spectron by Marex in 2011 he joined the Executive Committee of Marex Spectron in the role of Managing Director and Global Head of Energy.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales having qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1999. He served as a Senior Manager in the Energy, Infrastructure and Utilities division of the accounting firm Andersen, holding responsibility for several large energy trading companies.
Mr. Bennett holds a Bachelor of Science Degree (with Honours) in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh from 1990 to 1994.
Matt has 15 years of experience in climate finance and project development in the US and emerging market countries and is the Board Chair of UpEnergy, a developer of projects that makes clean technology such as improved stoves, electric stoves, and safe water systems available to low-income clients around the world. Matt also serves as Director of Investments at Environmental Commodity Partners where he is primarily responsible for investment and partnership origination. Previously Matt served as Managing Director of WattTime, A Rocky Mountain Institute subsidiary, that builds emissions reducing software for electricity users and renewables developers, and as Managing Director of Impact Carbon where he launched a climate finance consulting practice and the project developer Impact Water. Matt has also worked for Sunpower for Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. Matt holds a BA in Economics and in International Relations from Stanford and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
Sarah Leugers is Chief Growth Officer at Gold Standard, a senior executive with 20+ years’ experience in strategy and market development with a focus on how carbon markets and broader climate finance can catalyse sustainable development. She has published various thought leadership pieces on the nexus of gender equality and climate, corporate climate leadership, the evolution of carbon offsetting and the need for a paradigm shift to truly sustainable finance. Sarah works to advocate for Gold Standard’s best practice approaches to maximising impact toward the Sustainable Development Goals helping to achieve Gold Standard’s vision of “climate security and sustainable development for all.”
Shrikant Avi is Director, Market Strengthening at the Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA). At CCA, he is responsible for leading global and country-level venture programs and supporting innovative finance and carbon strategy. He was also part of a two-member CCA team instrumental in initiating and developing Spark+ Africa Fund, the first ever investment fund dedicated to clean cooking opportunities. Before joining CCA, he worked at Consilium Capital, an impact investment advisory firm based in London. At Consilium Capital, he advised on several private equity capital raise transactions for social enterprises and impact funds across the globe. Shrikant also has over five years of global financial market sales and trading experience with Rabobank and ICICI Bank where he has worked with agriculture, renewable energy and SME companies. Shrikant holds a Master in Finance degree from London Business School, UK, MBA from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India and B.A. in Economics degree from St. Stephen’s College Delhi, India.