Base Carbon delivers 1.85m cookstove carbon credits

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – Toronto-based financier Base Carbon has raised $10.7 million from delivering 1.85 million carbon credits that it has generated from a joint energy efficient cookstoves and water purifiers distribution project in Vietnam, the company said on Thursday.

The company said in a statement that the credits were sourced from the cookstove segment of the project.  

Base Carbon expects to receive an additional $1.8 million "over the coming days" for the delivery of 320,887 credits coming from the water purification part of the project.

Based on the figures given, the average price for the cookstove carbon credits amounts to $5.77 a tonne of carbon dioxide (tCO2), while the water purifier carbon credits fetched $5.6/tCO2.

Base Carbon said that on top of the two batches of credits it expects the Vietnam project to generate a further 3.88 million credits until April 2025.

"In aggregate and inclusive of the above, the company expects to generate approximately 6 million carbon credits from the Vietnam project for delivery to the project offtaker for contracted sales of approximately $29.1 million over the next 12 months," according to the press release.

Over the lifetime of the project, it is expected to generate about 33 million carbon credits.

Citigroup is contracted to purchase the first 7.4 million carbon credits generated from the project, the company said on its website.

Base Carbon's project, which was registered in November 2022 by US-based carbon standard Verra, has earned carbon credits from funding, manufacturing and distribution of 850,000 fuel-efficient cookstoves and 364,000 safe-drinking water purifiers to families in rural areas of Vietnam, according to the company's web page.

"The company is anticipated to achieve 100% payback of all its project capital expenditures ($20.8 million) in 2024 and subsequently begin generating significant capital returns from that point forward," it said in the statement.