Swissinfo revisited the Tuki Wasi cookstove program in Peru, the first bilateral carbon offset deal under the Paris Agreement. The project has delivered real health gains by replacing open indoor fires with improved stoves, but families in the Andean region still live in extreme poverty, often with no steady income. The article makes clear that carbon credits and poverty reduction are not the same thing. Roughly 35,000 households have received stoves, and a 2023 assessment estimated the program cut about 500,000 tonnes of CO2, about two-thirds of its 2030 target. Switzerland still needs to offset around 34 million tonnes by 2030, and the program's future after that date is unresolved. That uncertainty, plus slow deal-making with other countries, is limiting how much these projects can scale.
