Koko Networks shuts down after Kenya blocks its carbon credit sales.

Kenyan clean-cooking startup backed by international investors and development finance institutions, has shut down operations and laid off its entire workforce after the government blocked its ability to sell carbon credits. The company, which distributed subsidized bioethanol fuel to low-income households, closed on Friday following internal deliberations that concluded it could no longer remain solvent without approval to monetize its emissions reductions. The shutdown affects more than 700 direct employees and disrupts services to an estimated 1.5 million households that had relied on Koko’s fuel as an alternative to kerosene and charcoal. Koko’s model depended on selling carbon credits to overseas buyers to offset the cost of supplying bioethanol at prices well below market rates.