Cookstove Carbon Methodologies in 2026: VM0050, Gold Standard, Article 6.4 and CLEAR
Compare 2026 cookstove carbon methodologies (VM0050, Gold Standard RECH, AMS-II.G, Article 6.4 and CLEAR) and what each asks your field team to record.
Cookstove carbon projects earn credits for the wood, charcoal or fossil fuel that households stop burning when they switch to an improved or clean stove. The rules behind those credits have changed quickly since 2024: Verra replaced VMR0006 with VM0050 in October 2024, Gold Standard rewrote TPDDTEC as RECH in May 2026, and in October 2026 the UN's Article 6.4 mechanism adopted its first two cooking methodologies.
This guide compares the methodologies a cookstove developer can use today and what each asks the field team to record. It compares published rules, in our words, and is not legal or investment advice. First-party documents checked October 23, 2026.
Where Restoration Scope fits: we keep the stove and household register, field visits and surveys that every methodology below depends on. We don't calculate credits or replace your methodology expert. For the field side, see running a cookstove programme's field data.
Which cookstove methodologies can you use in 2026?
| Standard | Methodology | Current version | Status | ICVCM label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VM0050 | 1.0 (October 2024), with corrections from February 2025 | Required for all Verra cookstove projects from the 2027 vintage. Version 2.0 is a draft in expert review | Approved, with conditions | |
| VMR0006 | 1.2 | Inactive since October 2024; registered projects issue up to the 2026 vintage | Under assessment | |
| RECH (formerly TPDDTEC) | 5.0 (May 2026) | Current | Version 4.0 approved with conditions; 5.0 under assessment | |
| Metered & Measured Energy Cooking Devices | 2.0 (May 2026) | Current | Versions 1.0 to 1.2 approved with conditions; 2.0 under assessment | |
| Simplified Methodology for Clean and Efficient Cookstoves | 4.0 (May 2026) | Current, for micro-scale projects | Versions 1 to 3 not approved; 4.0 under assessment | |
| CDM | AMS-II.G | 14.0 (2025) | Closed to new stand-alone projects at Verra since 2023 | Versions 1 to 13.1 not approved as applied under Gold Standard |
| Article 6.4 | A6.4-AMM-004, Cooking energy transitions | 01.0 (October 2026) | Adopted; in force until October 2031 | Not assessed |
| Article 6.4 | A6.4-AMM-005, Energy efficiency measures in household cooking | 01.0 (October 2026) | Adopted; in force until October 2031 | Not assessed |
| Clean Cooking Alliance | CLEAR | August 2025 | Usable under Article 6.2; largely merged into AMM-004 | Not assessed |
ICVCM status from its assessment page.
Verra: VM0050 replaced VMR0006
Verra published VM0050, Energy Efficiency and Fuel-Switch Measures in Cookstoves, on October 9, 2024. It covers efficient biomass stoves and switches to LPG, bioethanol, electric or renewable-biomass stoves, in households, institutions and small businesses. VMR0006 and VMR0011 became inactive the same day. According to
Verra's FAQ, registered projects under VMR0006, VMR0011, AMS-I.E or AMS-II.G can keep issuing to the 2026 vintage, and every project must use VM0050 from the 2027 vintage.
For the field team, VM0050 version 1.0 asks for:
- A unique ID on each stove at distribution or sale, and a database with each stove's date and area of sale, model, and the recipient's name, phone and address.
- 90/10 confidence and precision for every survey and measurement campaign, following the CDM sampling standard.
- A face-to-face baseline survey before validation, with control households followed up at most every five years (
corrections of February 2025).
- Measured fuel use in the project: kitchen performance tests (KPTs), continuous metering on a sample, or fuel purchase records for fossil and bioethanol stoves when that fuel is used only in the project stove. Baseline fuel can come from KPTs or defaults checked against recent data.
- Usage from stove use monitors, the preferred method, or from annual surveys with a kitchen check. Survey-based usage is capped at 90% when the project offers fitting stoves, training and a support line, and 75% otherwise.
- Photos of the stoves, their parts and the cooking area.
- No credits after a stove's technical life, unless it is replaced or retrofitted.
The first CCP-labelled VM0050 credits were issued in February 2026. A
draft version 2.0 closed public consultation in August 2026. It would add MoFuSS-based fNRB values, require IDs permanently marked on the stove and align monitoring with CLEAR. It is not in force.
Gold Standard: RECH, metered and simplified
On May 5, 2026, Gold Standard updated four clean-cooking methodologies to align them with the Paris Agreement, and asks for these aligned versions on all 2026-vintage issuances.
Reduced Emissions from Cooking and Heating (RECH) 5.0 replaces TPDDTEC 4.0 for stoves without meters. Each stove needs a unique physical or digital ID in a relational database, and evidence that the household agreed to transfer its carbon rights. Samples follow 90/10, with at least 50 households for each KPT and, for usage surveys, for each stove-age group. Project KPTs run every two years and measure every stove in the home, so they capture stacking. Usage is surveyed every year by stove age; continuous sensor data on a representative sample can replace those surveys, and claiming usage above 90% takes at least 50 households monitored for at least 90 days. fNRB comes from MoFuSS or the Article 6.4 fNRB tool.
Gold Standard is also developing CLEAR as a methodology, still in consultation.
CDM AMS-II.G and the Article 6.4 methodologies
AMS-II.G is the Clean Development Mechanism's methodology for efficient stoves that burn non-renewable biomass. Version 14.0 points fNRB to the national default values in
CDM Tool 33, updated in June 2025. It samples at 95/10 when stoves are inspected every two years, or 90/10 when inspected every year.
Its successors under the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism were adopted at the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body's 23rd meeting, held October 5–9, 2026:
A6.4-AMM-004, Cooking energy transitions, built from the CLEAR submission and CDM AMS-I.E. It covers efficient biomass stoves and switches to electric and LPG stoves, with a metered route for projects that measure every household. Metered projects still use cooking tests to compare baseline and project fuel use.
Both apply from October 9, 2026 to October 8, 2031. What they ask of field data:
- One permanent ID, one stove, one household. The ID is fixed to the stove, for example as a tag that can't be removed without damaging it or a permanently installed stove use monitor; AMM-004 also accepts other permanent, auditable means. A household card alone is not enough, and the ID system is checked at every verification.
- Lab-tested biomass stoves to ISO 19867-1:2018. AMM-004 asks for 30% efficiency for most biomass stoves. AMM-005 asks for 25% for wood stoves, 20% for plancha stoves and 30% for charcoal stoves, and accepts an equivalent national standard where no accredited lab exists.
- Stove use monitors for usage of biomass stoves from January 2029 under AMM-004. AMM-005 gives both 2028 and 2029 for usage, and requires monitors alongside KPTs from January 2028. Until then, annual surveys with capped usage rates.
- 95/10 sampling, with a new
- KPTs every two years, in the last four months of the monitoring period. Under AMM-005 they measure every stove and fuel in the home. Projects using monitors keep them on the stove during each test and for 30 more days before or after it, to measure how much households change their cooking while observed.
- Geotagged, time-stamped photos of stoves and cooking areas (AMM-005), and consent from each household to transfer its credit rights, signed or, where a household can't sign, documented another way (AMM-004).
- fNRB from the Article 6.4 fNRB tool, updated when the crediting period is renewed.
CDM cookstove projects moving to Article 6.4 follow the mechanism's transition standard, revised at the same meeting. They could keep their CDM methodology only until the end of their crediting period or December 31, 2025, whichever came first. AMS-II.G and AMS-I.E projects must also update fNRB and the leakage discount with the latest data before their first issuance. The meeting adopted a
reversal-risk tool for these activities too, so credits account for reductions that are later undone.
What is CLEAR?
CLEAR, the Comprehensive Lowered Emission Assessment and Reporting methodology for cooking energy transitions, was developed by the Clean Cooking and Climate Consortium, led by the Clean Cooking Alliance. It measures project fuel use directly, through KPTs or continuous tracking, and doesn't allow survey-only fuel estimates. It takes fNRB from MoFuSS only, and asks for a permanent ID on each stove linked to one household.
As of October 2026, the Clean Cooking Alliance says CLEAR can be used under Article 6.2 and is still under review by Gold Standard and for Article 6.4. Much of it already lives inside A6.4-AMM-004, which was built from the CLEAR submission.
What the ICVCM label asks of cookstove projects
In March 2025 the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) approved three cookstove methodologies: Gold Standard's metered methodology, TPDDTEC 4.0 and Verra's VM0050. Credits carry the Core Carbon Principles label only if they meet
three conditions:
- fNRB from MoFuSS, or the CDM Tool 33 default for reductions up to December 31, 2025 only.
- Fuel use from a KPT or a controlled cooking test, or methodology defaults with cross-checks on fuel savings.
- Charcoal counted with a direct emission factor or a wood-to-charcoal ratio of four to one.
The label doesn't require measured fuel use: cross-checked defaults still qualify. It rejected Gold Standard's simplified methodology versions 1 to 3, AMS-II.G and AMS-I.E as applied, finding them not rigorous enough in how they measure fuel use and ongoing stove use. In June 2025 it also approved TPDDTEC 2.0 to 3.1, with extra conditions such as no credits from stoves past their technical life.
Are cookstove credits over-credited?
A 2024 Berkeley study, Gill-Wiehl, Kammen and Haya in Nature Sustainability, estimated that 51 projects under five Gold Standard and CDM methodologies were over-credited 9.2 times. fNRB was the largest factor, followed by the firewood-to-charcoal conversion, then adoption, usage and fuel use. Gold Standard's metered methodology came closest to its estimates. Verra's VMR0006 and VM0050 were not studied.
Developers and standards disputed it. The Project Developer Forum argued that the study used outdated literature and fNRB data, drew on projects without carbon finance, and applied every correction to every project at once.
Gold Standard called the research flawed and said it measured no actual over-estimation.
Verra noted that its own methodologies were not reviewed.
The rules have since moved toward measurement: MoFuSS-based fNRB, usage caps, stove use monitors and KPTs that capture stacking. The ICVCM still accepts cross-checked default fuel values, so the two sides have not fully converged.
What each methodology asks the field team to record
| Verra VM0050 1.0 | Gold Standard RECH 5.0 | Gold Standard metered 2.0 | CDM AMS-II.G 14.0 | A6.4-AMM-004 | A6.4-AMM-005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stove ID | On the stove, in a database | Physical or digital, in a relational database | On the device, linked to its meter | Product ID and end-user list | Permanent, on the stove; one stove, one household | Same as AMM-004 |
| Household details | Name, phone, address | Name, address, phone, GPS or village | Contact and location where law allows | Name, address, phone | Via the ID system; consent | Via the ID system |
| Baseline | Survey at 90/10; KPT or checked defaults | Survey; baseline KPT or default | Survey, fixed for 5 years | Survey where defaults aren't used | Survey at 95/10; KPT or controlled cooking test | Survey at 95/10 within a year before start |
| Fuel use | KPT, sample metering or purchase records | Project KPT every 2 years | Meters on every device, or sales records | KPT, energy output or water boiling test | KPT every 2 years, or meters on every household plus cooking tests | KPT every 2 years |
| Usage | Monitors preferred; else annual survey, capped | Annual survey by stove age; sensors can replace it | From meter data | At least every 2 years | Annual survey, then monitors from 2029 | Annual survey, then monitors from 2028–2029 |
| Sample | 90/10 | 90/10, at least 50 per test or stove-age group | Every device; a rotating sample until 2030 in some cases | 95/10 or 90/10 | 95/10 | 95/10, at least 340 monitors |
| Evidence | Photos of stove and cooking area | Carbon-rights consent, signed, digital or recorded | Calibration and data-gap records | Recipient records | Consent; monitor placement photos | Geotagged, time-stamped photos |
Where software fits
Every methodology above rests on the same record: a register of stoves and households that holds up for years, joined to the visits, surveys, tests and sensor readings that feed the calculation. Running that across thousands of households and several distributors is mostly operations. Our guide to running a cookstove programme's field data covers it, from distribution to verification.
More guides: carbon standards for nature projects compared, what dMRV means and Restoration Scope for carbon projects.
Questions about cookstove methodologies
What replaced VMR0006?
Verra's VM0050, published on October 9, 2024. VMR0006 became inactive that day. Registered projects can keep issuing under their old methodology up to the 2026 vintage, and every Verra cookstove project must use VM0050 from the 2027 vintage.
Is TPDDTEC still current?
No. Gold Standard replaced TPDDTEC version 4.0 with Reduced Emissions from Cooking and Heating (RECH) version 5.0 on May 5, 2026, and asks for its Paris-aligned methodologies on all 2026-vintage issuances.
Which cookstove methodologies carry the ICVCM label?
Verra VM0050 version 1.0, Gold Standard TPDDTEC version 4.0 (and versions 2.0 to 3.1 with extra conditions) and Gold Standard's metered methodology versions 1.0 to 1.2, all with conditions on fNRB, fuel use and charcoal. The newer Gold Standard versions are still being assessed.
What are A6.4-AMM-004 and A6.4-AMM-005?
The first two cooking methodologies of the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, adopted on October 9, 2026. AMM-004 covers cooking energy transitions, including fuel switch; AMM-005 covers efficient wood and charcoal stoves in low-income rural households.
Do the new rules require stove use monitors?
Under Article 6.4, for biomass stoves, yes: stove use monitors become the basis for usage from 2028 or 2029, depending on the methodology. VM0050 calls them the preferred method, and Gold Standard RECH lets sensor data replace usage surveys.
Does every stove need its own ID?
Under Verra, Gold Standard and Article 6.4, yes. Verra and Article 6.4 ask for the ID on the stove itself, and Article 6.4 ties each ID to one stove and one household. CDM AMS-II.G asks for product identification and end-user records to avoid double counting, with less detail. See how to run that register.
Another question? Email us or book a call.
