Zambia faces a critical deforestation crisis, with urban cooking traditionally dominated by inefficient charcoal stoves. Over 80% of urban households rely on charcoal as a cooking fuel, driving forest degradation and posing severe health risks from household air pollution. This activity addresses the crisis by facilitating a full technology and fuel switch for urban families in four densely populated provinces.

The activity is driven by Emerging Cooking Solutions (trading as SupaMoto), which operates a vertically integrated model: sustainable wood residues from plantation sawmills within Zambia are processed into biomass pellets and distributed through a last-mile agent network. Households receive the "SupaMoto" forced-air gasifier stove, a Tier-4 technology featuring an integrated IoT-enabled fan. The fan is powered by a battery that is recharged using a small solar panel included in the cookstove package.

Carbon finance from the KliK Foundation is the vital catalyst for this transition. It removes the primary barrier to adoption – the high capital cost of advanced stoves – allowing SupaMoto to provide the hardware through an Energy Subscription Service model: Customers pay a small enrolment fee and purchase pellets, while SupaMoto recovers its investment costs through carbon revenues. Furthermore, the project utilizes a state-of-the-art digital MRV (dMRV) system, tracking every pellet sale and verifying stove usage via seasonal, sensor-based Kitchen Performance Tests (KPTs). This ensures a high-integrity, dynamic baseline that goes beyond the ambition level of the country’s NDC package. While Zambia’s NDC expresses the goal to reduce wood-fuel reliance, it provides no financed mechanism for large-scale pellet stove deployment; thus, this activity represents a material regulatory surplus and a fully additional mitigation effort.

The transition to SupaMoto technology yields a profound ripple effect of co-benefits that extend far beyond carbon reduction. Environmentally, the project serves as a frontline defence for Zambia’s native forests; by utilising plantation-sourced sawmill residues as fuel, it eliminates the need for hardwood charcoal, directly preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. For the households themselves, the shift is life changing. The Tier-4 gasifier technology virtually eliminates harmful indoor smoke and carbon monoxide. Beyond health, the system's efficiency restores valuable time and resources to families. Users save between 30 and 60 minutes daily due to the stove’s rapid lighting and high power, while household fuel expenditures drop by approximately 50%, providing critical financial breathing room.

These individual gains fuel a broader engine of green growth. The program drives regional economic development by creating green jobs in manufacturing, logistics, and data management. This holistic impact is reflected in the project's alignment with several Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 1 (No Poverty) through household savings, free access to the stove and the innovative use of Customer Impact Vouchers that share climate value back with end-users, and SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) by establishing a permanent, reliable cooking service for urban populations.