Norton Rose Fulbright leads sustainability-driven carbon credit financing in Africa

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright’s multi-jurisdictional team led by Australia has acted for two lenders, Dutch development bank FMO and Dutch impact-investing investment fund BIX Capital, in their financing of carbon credit generation projects being run by C-Quest Capital LLC (CQC) across Sub-Saharan Africa. 

CQC is a social impact project developer whose purpose is to transform the lives of families in poor communities around the world by improving their access to sustainable energy services and clean energy technologies, while combating global climate change and improving the health of those in need. 

CQC’s “cleaner cooking” projects deploy improved cookstoves and other equipment in multiple jurisdictions including Malawi, Angola and Zambia. The projects contribute to significant emissions reductions and other environmental benefits, including reduced deforestation. They also improve the health and wellbeing of women and children who are most commonly the cooks in their households, by reducing exposure to fuels and smoke produced by inefficient cookstoves or fires, as well as eliminating the need to gather large amounts of firewood that is often collected many kilometres away.  

The projects generate carbon credits which are sold through the voluntary carbon market and under exclusive offtake arrangements with multinational companies. CQC has multinational financial institutions and energy companies as its co-investors in a number of the projects.  

This is FMO and BIX’s first joint financing arrangement. The Norton Rose Fulbright team advised them on all aspects of the structuring, documentation and negotiation for the financing and security arrangements, as well as due diligence on the key ERPA (Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement). 

Norton Rose Fulbright banking and finance partner Lisa Koch commented:

“We are pleased to have leveraged our expertise on the global energy transition from multiple jurisdictions to guide FMO and BIX through this sustainability-driven financing transaction. The “cleaner cooking” project will improve the health and wellbeing of many women in Sub-Saharan Africa and contribute to significant carbon emissions reductions.”

Sydney partner Lisa Koch led the collaborative multi-jurisdictional team which included partners Elisa de Wit (Melbourne) and Janelene Chen (Singapore), special counsel Mary-Frances Murphy (Sydney), associates Kit Man Cheng (Sydney), Ian Lam and Gabriel Lim (Singapore) and Sebastian Withers (Melbourne), and lawyer Sarah Hilton (Sydney), with support from partners Katie McDougall (London) and Katie Chung (Singapore) and senior associate Cloudesley Long (London).