TEM’s Papua New Guinea cookstove project completes phase one with the successful delivery of 20,000 cookstoves across the Southern Highlands Province 

The pioneering new cookstoves project by leading Asia-Pacific carbon offsetting solutions provider, Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM), has hit its first milestone with the successful distribution of 20,000 cookstoves to households across the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG).  

The cookstoves will reduce carbon emissions generating over 70,000 carbon credits annually and provide lasting impact bringing social, economic and health benefits to local communities. TEM also continues to work with the PNG and Singapore Governments to finalise approval of the project under the PNG-Singapore Implementation Agreement. 

TEM’s PNG team consists of 30 staff employed locally who manage all project activities including houshold registrations, where the team visit and discuss the project with every house across the Province. 

“The cookstoves have been well received, with over 98% of participating community members opting in to receive a free cookstove after community consultation and education. The TEM PNG team were able to distrubte the cookstoves in half the anticpated time – delivering nearly 1,000 cookstoves per day,” said Adrian Enright, TEM CEO. 

Last week, the project team celebrated the end of phase one with a ceremony to thank the community, where they enjoyed activities and shared their reflections on the project implementation so far.  

In attendance was Phillip Kera, Southern Highlands Provincial Government Representative, who shared his thoughts: 

“The cookstoves are very beneficial to the local community, especially for women, the disadvantaged and the children attending schools in the remote areas – in particular saving them time collecting wood. The project has already assisted a lot of people and in the long run, it will be very beneficial to local communities.” 

Joe Uli Lapa, the Chief of Kirene Village added: 

“Looking for firewood affects most of our community; we get back pain from wood collection, and severe coughs and eyesight issues due to the smoke from our open fires. The cookstoves were provided to us by TEM for free, they reduce the smoke and can cook food quickly, keeping us warm in the process. Thank you to the TEM team, we look forward to the benefits of these cookstoves and future projects.” 

In PNG over 80% of households rely on indoor open fire cooking, a method that consumes large amounts of firewood and pollutes the air causing health risks. The improved cookstoves from TEM are delivered at no cost to the community, and TEM aims to expand the project across the country with a goal of scaling the project to deliver 200,000 cookstoves. By bringing this clean cooking technology, it is estimated to avoid near 3 million tonnes of CO₂ over 10 years, reducing firewood consumption and deforestation, and saving communities money as they no longer need to purchase as much wood. 

The project was approved by Verra in June 2024, will also improve the health of the communities by reducing smoke volume in the home and time spent gathering firewood, which can now be allocated to education and other opportunities.  

Adrian adds: “The TEM PNG team are not slowing down. While phase one is now complete, we have already commenced household registration for phase two of the project with distribution set to occur early 2025.”  

The ‘Papua New Guinea Healthier Homes, Healthier Forests’ project is also the first carbon finance cookstoves project in PNG and also the first project to be registered using the revised higher integrity version 1.2 of Verra method VMR0006 Energy Efficiency and Fuel Switch Measures in Thermal Applications, released in July 2023. 

TEM has also partnered with the Western Pacific University, based in the Southern Highlands Province of PNG, who have supported with the implementation of the project. 

Dr Janet Rangou, President of Western Pacific University shared: “For us Western Pacific University, this is a good partnership with an international partner to transform rural lives within our district and province. Not only are we beneficial to assisting TEM in their project, but it gives visibility of WPU’s efforts and contributions in the climate change space for local improvement and betterment of society as a higher education institution in Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.”