Zambia Issues First CORSIA Authorization for BURN Clean Cooking Credits

Zambia's Ministry of Green Economy and Environment has issued the country's first Letter of Authorization for carbon credits eligible under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), clearing African developer BURN's clean cooking program for international transfers.

The authorization covers credits generated during Zambia's 2025–2030 national climate commitment period. That window matters for buyers: it defines which vintages airlines can count toward CORSIA compliance obligations, and it ties the project to the country's NDC rather than to a floating, project-defined timeline.

What did the government actually approve?

The Letter of Authorization allows credits from BURN's clean cooking activities in Zambia to be used under CORSIA. It's the first approval of this kind the country has granted.

The legal footing is recent. Zambia issued the authorization under the Green Economy and Climate Change Act of 2024 and the country's 2026 carbon market regulations. Those rules set out procedures for approving carbon projects and require assessments of:

• environmental integrity,
• consistency with national climate targets,
• financial additionality.

In practice, that means every project seeking similar authorization now has a defined pathway — and defined tests it must pass.

How big is the underlying project?

BURN has distributed nearly 67,000 energy-efficient cooking appliances in Zambia, reaching more than 322,000 people. The appliances are high-efficiency cookstoves intended to cut reliance on traditional cooking fuels, protect forests and improve indoor air quality.

For scale: 67,000 stoves is roughly one appliance per five people reached, which signals household-level distribution rather than institutional pilots. Across its wider footprint, BURN operates in 12 African countries and says it has generated approximately 9.7 million Gold Standard credits to date.

The company also has a separate, previously reported CORSIA milestone elsewhere on the continent: 5.2 million CORSIA-eligible credits unlocked in Nigeria.

The registry behind the decision

This authorization didn't happen in a vacuum. Zambia introduced its carbon market regulations in January 2026 and launched a national Carbon Registry in August. The digital platform tracks and reports carbon assets and supports accounting under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The sequence is the story: regulations first, registry second, first CORSIA authorization third. Zambia has assembled the institutional plumbing — approval procedures, integrity tests, a tracking platform — before signing off on internationally transferable credits. The BURN decision is the first test of that system.

Who is financing the rollout?

The approval builds on financing arrangements involving BURN's joint venture with Key Carbon, Global Cookstoves. Marex partnered with Key Carbon in 2024 to finance carbon-credit projects, supporting the manufacture and distribution of low-emission cooking appliances across Africa.

Translation for practitioners: there's already committed offtake-side capital behind the stoves, and CORSIA eligibility now widens the buyer pool from voluntary purchasers to aviation compliance buyers — typically a deeper, more price-stable demand base.

What the CEO said

"Carbon finance can help close the affordability gap that keeps millions of families reliant on inefficient cooking fuels," said BURN CEO Peter Scott. "With the Government's support, we can channel more climate finance into proven clean cooking solutions that save families time and money, protect forests and decrease indoor air pollution."

BURN said it will continue working with the Zambian government and partners to expand clean cooking access and mobilize climate finance.

What happens next

Watch two things: whether Zambia's registry processes its first international transfers of these credits without friction, and whether additional developers win authorization under the same January 2026 regulations. The 2025–2030 crediting window is open — the market will now show who walks through it.