Nigeria's National Council on Climate Change has issued a Letter of Authorization under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, unlocking 5.2 million CORSIA-eligible carbon credits generated by clean cookstove manufacturer BURN. The move converts a domestic manufacturing and distribution program into a compliance-grade asset pipeline for international airlines facing their first offsetting obligations.

The credits carry Gold Standard certification and are tagged as fully eligible for retirement under Phase 1 of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. Airlines must acquire and surrender approved offset units for 2024–2026 emissions by January 2028, a deadline that now anchors demand for the Nigerian issuance.

What does the authorization change?

The Letter of Authorization triggers corresponding adjustments under Article 6 rules. Nigeria, as host country, now accounts for the underlying emission reductions in its national ledger, which eliminates double-counting risk for international compliance buyers. Without that adjustment, the credits would remain usable only in voluntary markets.

The 5.2 million credits derive from the distribution of close to one million fuel-efficient biomass cookstoves. BURN assembles the units at an ISO-certified plant in Kano, which currently operates at an output capacity of 40,000 units per month.

BURN and its investment partners have invested over $9.6 million directly in the Nigerian assembly line and field operations. That capital built the monitoring and supply chain infrastructure required to support certification at this scale.

Who is financing the program?

The capital stack draws on two named sources:

• Key Carbon, which has allocated roughly $50 million to its Global Cookstoves joint venture with BURN across 19 African projects. Of the initial Nigerian authorization, 4.4 million credits are earmarked for the venture.
• AfricaGoGreen Fund, managed by Cygnum Capital, which provided strategic financing alongside Key Carbon.

The financing structure ties the credits to institutional investors rather than retail voluntary buyers, a positioning consistent with the compliance-window deadline in early 2028.

What does the CEO say?

Peter Scott, Founder and CEO of BURN, framed the authorization in household terms. "Every credit under this authorisation represents a Nigerian household gaining access to cleaner cooking, reducing fuel use, improving indoor air quality and easing pressure on forests," he said.

Scott also credited the regulator's role in building a credible domestic carbon market. "With the National Council on Climate Change helping build a credible carbon market, Nigeria is creating a pathway for climate finance to reach households at scale," he said.

Is this a one-off or a pattern?

The Nigerian issuance is not BURN's first Article 6.2 authorization. Tanzania has granted the company a second Letter of Authorization for CORSIA-eligible cookstove credits, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has authorized BURN to sell cookstove carbon credits into the aviation market. The company is replicating the model across multiple African jurisdictions, each requiring host-country accounting and registry certification before credits reach compliance buyers.

On the Nigerian side, the framework rests on the national Carbon Market Framework enacted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in January 2026. The project links domestic manufacturing, Article 6.2 national accounting, Gold Standard certification, and international compliance trading in one operational chain — a configuration African issuers have struggled to complete.

What happens next?

The decisive milestone is the January 2028 surrender deadline for Phase 1 CORSIA obligations covering 2024–2026 aviation emissions. Airlines needing approved units will determine how quickly the 5.2 million authorized credits, including the 4.4 million allocated to the Key Carbon venture, are transacted and retired. Additional authorizations under Nigeria's January 2026 framework, and further issuances from BURN's other African host countries, will test whether the cookstove-to-compliance pipeline scales beyond this first tranche.