AWMS Methane Recovery Project MX06-S-63, Durango, México

Audit Analysis

This CDM methane recovery project from Mexican dairy farms has a VVB-confirmed barrier additionality test and a reputable verifier (DNV), but suffers from a project-specific modeled baseline, no documented leakage treatment, and ten material corrective actions that had to be resolved in the PDD. The monitoring report shows the project delivered only about 29% of the pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the elapsed period, which limits over-crediting risk but signals operational underperformance. Several key MRV parameters (usage rates, FNRB, grid emission factors) are absent from the extracted record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage is explicitly not addressed in available documents for a methane avoidance project where fugitive emissions and displaced methane are material
• ⚠Ten corrective actions were required in the PDD, including wrong animal categories in baseline, missing CO2 emissions from electricity use, and outdated IPCC values — indicating the initial ex-ante estimate was materially flawed
• ⚠The monitoring report (2011) shows only 10,454 ERRs delivered over ~3.6 years versus a pro-rata expectation of ~36,400 from the validation report's 100,356 lifetime estimate — a 29% delivery ratio that raises questions about the robustness of the original baseline assumptions
• ⚠No buffer pool, no reversal event data, and no permanence mechanism documented for a project with a 10-year crediting period

Credit Vintages