On 29 June 2019, the Ashden Awards named two African winners, with Kenya’s Sistema.bio taking the Clean Cooking prize and a Zambia-linked energy programme winning for Innovative Finance.
Sistema.bio was recognised for a biogas system that converts animal waste into cooking fuel and produces fertiliser. The company’s design is modular, allowing capacity to be expanded, and customers can pay in instalments, a feature meant to widen access for farmers.
The award was presented in association with the Clean Cooking Alliance. The project was described as helping households move away from expensive and polluting wood fuel or fossil fuels, while also supporting forests and climate goals.
The other African winner was the Renewable Energy Efficiency Programme (REEEP), funded by the Beyond the Grid Fund Zambia (BGFZ). The programme was cited for making it less risky for businesses to operate in Zambia’s off-grid energy market and for helping households buy lights and mobile phones for the first time.
According to the announcement, the BGFZ aims to bring modern energy services to at least 167,000 households, or about one million Zambians, by 2021. The fund does this by offering financial incentives to renewable energy companies, with payments tied to project requirements and performance checks intended to keep product quality high.
The Zambia-backed scheme won the 2019 Ashden Award for Innovative Finance, supported by Citi. The winners were due to receive their awards at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Wednesday 3 July.
Ashden said the 2019 winners joined more than 215 enterprises that had received awards since the programme began in 2001. Ashden chief executive Harriet Lamb said the organisations on the 2019 list showed that climate solutions already exist and only need to be scaled further.
“The outstanding organisations that make up our 2019 roster can give us all hope: we have the solutions to the climate emergency, solutions that are working already and just need scaling even further. In particular, financial innovation and commitment must be an integral part of ensuring these solutions are sustainable – and that is just what our 2019 winner is showcasing. Others should come and steal their model and their ideas with pride!” Lamb said.
