Workshop statement
Increased scrutiny in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) is pushing cookstove projects to align with higher transparent standards, driving trust and credibility. A crucial aspect of this shift is ensuring that the fraction of Non-Renewable Biomass (fNRB) remains within plausible, verifiable ranges, as its past misuse has fueled rampant overcrediting in the cookstove sector. Enter MoFuSS, a model designed to restore integrity by providing scientifically grounded fNRB estimates, putting an end to the creative accounting that has long plagued the VCM.
About
This workshop equips rating agencies with the skills and tools needed to evaluate the credibility of fNRB claims from cookstove projects, leveraging the advanced capabilities of the MoFuSS model.
The workshop is designed with a dual purpose:
For Rating Agencies: It provides the necessary tools to evaluate the credibility of fNRB claims from cookstove projects. This is achieved through a two-tier approach:
Tier 1: Consulting readily available results from 1km simulations on the MoFuSS webpage.
Tier 2: Running local simulations at 100m as a prototype of the ongoing WebMoFuSS web-based simulation tool, currently under development by the MoFuSS team.
For Project Developers: It serves as a resource to help calculate fNRB values within plausible ranges, grounded in observed data and geospatial simulations, leveraging nearly two decades of experience from MoFuSS researchers and developers.
Calculating avoided emissions using MoFuSS departs from any currently approved methodology such as AMS.II.G, and requires information on both past and future deployment of woodfuel-saving devices by any project developer. However, to ensure applicability, MoFuSS also calculates the fraction of Non-Renewable Biomass in the baseline, without relying on any project-based inputs.
This course is focused on using MoFuSS to calculate fNRB values. Using MoFuSS as it was originally designed would need at least a week-long training course.
What is MoFuSS at a glance?
MoFuSS was designed to estimate avoided CO2e emissions resulting from a reduction in woodfuels use. It is a GIS-based model that simulates the spatio-temporal impacts of woodfuel harvesting over dynamic landscapes. In the aim of not cutting corners, MoFuSS evolved into a complex modeling tool that integrates various drivers of land change, woodfuel demand sources, and end-user technologies.
The latest version of MoFuSS is capable of calibration with observed dynamics of aboveground biomass, making future projections more robust.
Originally conceptualized as a research tool independent of the Voluntary Carbon Market, MoFuSS was developed to better understand the environmental impacts of wood harvesting for fuelwood and charcoal in the Global South. Its key objective is to pinpoint areas of woodfuel-driven degradation and assess how diminishing woody resources could affect essential energy access for local communities.
MoFuSS is a freeware developed and maintained collaboratively by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Stockholm Environment Institute.
As with any scientific endeavor, MoFuSS will continue to evolve, ensuring the model remains a cutting-edge tool for addressing woodfuel sustainability challenges.
Rob is a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute based in their US centre. His research focuses on the relationship between energy, social well-being and environmental change in developing countries. Rob's current research focuses on the impacts of traditional energy carriers such as wood and charcoal and the prospects for transition to alternative fuels and technologies such as pellets, liquid biofuels, gas and electricity. His work on household energy includes current projects in Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda and Haiti. Rob is the co-developer of MoFuSS.
Diana is a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, specializing in environmental geography. She earned her PhD in Geography from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2023. Her research interests include the telecoupling of land use systems, land governance, and analyzing trade-offs in land change for ecosystem services and biodiversity. In MoFuSS she leads the prospective land use / cover change simulations by non-energy drivers, which allows MoFuSS to run over dynamic landscapes and iteract with residues from land clearings. Diana is also affiliated with the Wyss Academy for Nature.
Steven Pluymaekers is a Senior Manager for Climate and Energy Modeling, at CCA. He has a dual appointment with CCA and the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, where he is currently based and working.
Steven has over 15 years of experience in data analysis, climate strategies and energy modelling, having worked extensively in Africa, Europe and North America. Prior to joining CCA, Steven worked as an independent consultant advising private sector clients on climate strategies. He also worked for TotalEnergies in various technical, managerial and strategic roles, most recently as Senior Climate Strategy Advisor where he was involved in developing group-level climate strategies and formulating transition roadmaps. Steven holds a MSc in Geomatics Engineering from Delft University of Technology, and a Master’s in International Energy from the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po.
Adrian is an Associate Professor at the Environmental Geography Research Centre of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Yale University (2011–2013) and as a Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia (2019–2020). Adrian teaches spatial analysis and modeling at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His fieldwork, marked by extensive stakeholder engagement, spans a wide range of regions in Latin America, Africa, and India. His research integrates ground data with computer simulations to address complex environmental challenges. Adrian is the designer, lead developer, and maintainer of MoFuSS.
