Assunção Ceramic Fuel Switching Project

Audit Analysis

The Assunção Ceramic fuel-switching project has VVB-confirmed additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, and it delivered roughly 193% of the pro-rata emission-reduction expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, which is a strong signal of conservative crediting. However, the absence of any stated buffer pool or permanence mechanism, unaddressed reversal risk, multiple material findings involving calculation errors, and a long list of corrective actions across several monitoring cycles materially weaken confidence in the project's integrity and documentation quality.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism is stated in any available document, and reversal events are explicitly not addressed, leaving the project exposed to carbon-loss risk over the 10-year crediting period.
• ⚠Multiple material findings across verification reports document calculation errors in NCV values, missing conversion factors, and a leakage-monitoring gap (surveys not conducted due to feasibility; a 0.95 adjustment factor applied instead), indicating recurring data-quality weaknesses.
• ⚠FPIC status is contradictory: the 2013 verification report records it as not conducted, while the 2019 monitoring report records it as conducted, with no reconciliation in the 2024 verification report.
• ⚠The additionality test type is inconsistent across documents (barrier test in the 2009 validation vs. investment test referenced in the 2019 monitoring report), creating ambiguity about which test underpins the additionality claim.
• ⚠An extensive list of corrective actions spanning at least four monitoring cycles (2011, 2013, 2019, 2024) covers data errors, missing licenses, misidentified equipment counts, and inconsistent production figures, suggesting persistent MRV weaknesses.

Credit Vintages