The way it works is quite simple. You or I log into the website and purchase a “carbon credit”-denominated in tons of CO2 emissions avoided. Those funds then enable microentrepreneurs to take a loan for a clean energy investment. The microentrepreneur pays back the loan in small installments—often less than what they previously paid for the dirty energy source. And the clean energy investment reduces pollution, helping to mitigate climate change.

In Mongolia, for example, low income people live in yurts, called gers. By purchasing an insulating “blanket” they can reduce by half the amount of coal they need to burn to stay warm in the winter. This creates a carbon emissions reduction—and it makes their home warmer and more economical. When you buy a carbon credit from a yurt dweller in Mongolia, those funds are used by the microfinance institution –a bank called XacBank–for education campaigns so that more ger owners can learn about the benefits of energy efficient blankets and the financing program that makes them affordable.

The website is called http://yurtcozy.org, and it will be announced at Copenhagen on December 17th.

Yurtcozy helps microentrepreneurs switch to clean energy. As in microfinance they take a loan to improve their quality of life and escape poverty. In this case the cost savings come from reduced expenditures on kerosene, coal, and wood. The products they purchase include solar lighting systems, improved stoves and biogas digesters.

When you purchase a carbon offset on the Yurtcozy site, you know who you are helping. In fact, you can see a map with the GPS location of each microentrepreneur who has purchased a clean energy system.

How does this relate to the cap and trade debate? The mechanism builds on the same principles of the Kyoto Protocol, and leverages partnerships with some of the original architects of the carbon markets including the non-profit, Environmental Defense and the carbon trading firm, EcoSecurities. Yurtcozy is different because it allows people to connect as individuals. Because the clean energy investors are all individual microentrepreneurs, you know exactly who you have helped and how.

Rather than establishing emissions caps, Yurtcozy relies on individuals and teams to set their targets for how much climate change they will reduce.