Malawi’s clean cooking transition is becoming a test case for how carbon finance, local manufacturing and digital monitoring can work together to expand energy access. BURN says it has distributed more than 166,000 clean cooking stoves in the country since receiving government authorization in 2024, while building local manufacturing capacity and securing authorization to generate 3.5 million carbon credits from its Malawi activities.

The economics of clean cooking are increasingly being tied to the economics of carbon markets. In Malawi, that connection is taking shape through BURN’s growing stove manufacturing and distribution operation, which the company says has now created 400 local jobs while reaching households across several major population centers.

The latest development came during an August 12 visit by a delegation from Malawi’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change to BURN’s facility in Njuli, near Blantyre. Led by Deputy Minister Chipiliro Mpinganjira and Principal Secretary Misheck Yagontha Munthali, the delegation toured the company’s manufacturing operations and visited customer households in Ndirande Ward.

The visit provides a useful window into a broader financial technology story: carbon markets are becoming an increasingly important financing mechanism for climate infrastructure in emerging markets.

BURN received a Letter of Authorisation from Malawi’s government in September 2024. The company says it has since distributed 166,235 clean cooking stoves and is authorized to generate 3.5 million carbon credits from its Malawi projects. BURN says those credits are eligible under the international Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA.

CORSIA is particularly relevant because it creates a compliance-market pathway for eligible emissions-reduction credits generated by projects outside the aviation industry. For clean cooking companies, access to buyers in such markets can potentially provide an additional revenue stream alongside stove sales and distribution.

BURN has been building toward that model. The company says it secured government authorizations in Malawi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while its carbon business has focused increasingly on credits that can meet higher-integrity requirements. In 2025, BURN said it became the first project developer to deliver CORSIA-tagged credits through the insurance pathway.

The underlying market need is substantial.

The World Bank estimates that approximately 98% of Malawian households rely on firewood or charcoal for cooking, while 69% still use traditional three-stone stoves. Only about 2% of households use clean-fuel stoves, including LPG and electric cooking technologies.

Those figures illustrate why clean cooking in Malawi is not simply an environmental issue. It is also an energy-access, household-economics, public-health and infrastructure challenge.

BURN’s Malawi portfolio currently spans several technologies. More than 160,000 biomass stoves have been distributed in Lilongwe, Mwanza and Blantyre, with some units equipped with digital sensors. The company is also piloting electric stoves in Lilongwe and Blantyre.

The sensor component is strategically significant for carbon finance. Digital monitoring can help project developers measure stove use and generate data needed for emissions accounting and verification. BURN has separately highlighted its work with Gold Standard on digital kitchen performance testing as part of its effort to make clean-cooking carbon projects more scalable and data-driven.

This is where fintech and climate technology increasingly intersect. Carbon credits turn measured emissions reductions into a financial asset, but producing credible credits requires monitoring, reporting, verification, regulatory authorization and increasingly sophisticated data infrastructure.

Malawi itself is developing the institutional infrastructure for that market. World Bank project documentation says the country’s carbon-market framework has been launched and identifies carbon finance as an important element of scaling clean-cooking programs. The bank’s ASCENT Malawi program includes a US$10 million clean-cooking component and is exploring carbon revenue as a mechanism to support long-term financial sustainability.

For companies such as BURN, that creates a potentially powerful flywheel: carbon revenue can help finance the distribution of cleaner technologies; distribution generates measurable emissions reductions; and verified reductions can support additional carbon-market revenue.

But the model also comes with a significant qualification. Carbon-credit authorization is not the same thing as guaranteed revenue. The eventual financial value depends on credit eligibility, verification, market demand, pricing, regulatory rules and the ability to demonstrate credible emissions reductions.

That distinction matters for investors and enterprise partners evaluating clean-cooking projects. A large theoretical credit volume is less important than whether credits can actually be issued, verified and sold at commercially viable prices.

The household economics offer another dimension.

During the government visit, BURN customer Margaret Chirwa said her daily fuel spending fell from about $3 to roughly $1 after switching to the company’s ECOA Char stove. She also reported less smoke exposure in her home.

Her experience is a customer account rather than independently verified evidence of average household savings or health outcomes. Still, it illustrates the business case clean-cooking companies are trying to establish: a stove has to work economically for households before carbon finance can deliver meaningful climate impact at scale.

The challenge becomes even larger when the objective shifts from tens of thousands of households to millions.

BURN says it is targeting 2 million stoves in Malawi by 2030. Its original government authorization also covered a program intended to reach 2 million households with biomass and electric cooking technologies.

For Malawi, the significance extends beyond one manufacturer. The country needs investment models that can lower the upfront cost of cleaner cooking while creating durable distribution networks and reliable measurement systems.

For the global carbon market, meanwhile, Malawi demonstrates why emerging-market climate projects are increasingly being evaluated as pieces of financial infrastructure rather than isolated environmental programs.

The next phase will depend on whether those systems can scale with integrity. If local manufacturing, digital monitoring, government oversight and international carbon demand can operate together, clean cooking could become an example of how climate finance moves from abstract carbon accounting into physical infrastructure, jobs and household energy services.

Market Landscape

Malawi’s clean-cooking market remains dominated by traditional fuels, creating a large potential market but also substantial affordability and infrastructure barriers. The World Bank says 98% of households depend on firewood or charcoal, while 69% use three-stone stoves.

The financing ecosystem is beginning to change. Malawi’s carbon-market framework and the World Bank’s ASCENT program are creating mechanisms through which private clean-cooking companies can combine conventional financing, results-based support and carbon revenue.

The competitive landscape includes improved biomass stoves, electric cooking, LPG and other modern-energy technologies. BURN’s model is distinctive in combining manufacturing, distribution, carbon-project development and digital monitoring rather than relying exclusively on appliance sales.

For financial institutions and climate investors, the key variables are likely to be credit integrity, measurement and verification, technology adoption, household affordability, regulatory approvals and long-term carbon-market demand.

The broader opportunity is significant, but carbon finance should be treated as a financing mechanism—not a substitute for viable consumer economics.

Top Insights

• BURN has distributed 166,235 clean cooking stoves in Malawi, linking local manufacturing, household energy access and carbon finance while creating 400 domestic jobs.
• The company is authorized to generate 3.5 million carbon credits, potentially connecting Malawi’s clean-cooking sector with international compliance demand through CORSIA.
• Digital stove monitoring is becoming financial infrastructure, helping clean-cooking developers measure usage and support the verification processes required for credible carbon credits.
• Malawi’s clean-cooking challenge remains enormous, with 98% of households relying on firewood or charcoal and most traditional stoves still widely used.
• Enterprise and climate investors face both opportunity and risk, because credit authorization does not guarantee issuance, marketability or predictable carbon revenue.

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