Agoro Carbon USA Cropland Program

Audit Analysis

The Agoro Carbon USA Cropland Program is a VCS-registered soil carbon project (VM0042 v2.0) verified by SCS Global Services, with a 22% buffer pool and no reported reversal events. However, a stark discrepancy between the validation report's lifetime ERR estimate (6,130,133 tCO2e) and the first monitoring period's verified figure (39,451 tCO2e) — roughly 3.4% of the pro-rata expectation — raises serious over-crediting concerns. Additionally, a 0% leakage deduction with no stated justification is inconsistent with the risk profile of a cropland soil carbon project.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The first monitoring period (≈4 years) verified only 39,451 tCO2e against a pro-rata expectation of ~1,168,000 tCO2e derived from the validation report's 6,130,133 tCO2e lifetime estimate — a delivery rate of roughly 3.4%, indicating a potential massive over-crediting risk.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with the justification recorded as 'not addressed' in the validation report, which is inconsistent with the expected displacement and land-use-change risks inherent in a multi-state cropland soil carbon project.
• ⚠Nine contradictions were identified across documents, including conflicting additionality test types (combined vs. barrier), conflicting crediting period dates, and conflicting leakage justification entries within the same validation report.
• ⚠Fifteen non-conformity requests (NCRs) were raised during verification, covering stakeholder engagement gaps, missing SDG quantification, and inconsistent implementation schedules.

Credit Vintages

No issuances recorded on the registry.