Clean Cooking Program in Rural India

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard clean-cooking project in rural India with a VVB-confirmed investment additionality test, a quantified 5% leakage deduction, and conservative under-delivery relative to the pro-rata ex-ante expectation. However, a 12.7-fold discrepancy in the non-renewable energy fraction between the 2023 monitoring report and the 2026 verification report, combined with six or seven genuine cross-document contradictions on safeguards, FPIC, and monitoring method, materially erodes confidence in the data trail. CORSIA eligibility without a stated CCP status introduces dual-channel risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠FNRB value differs by a factor of 12.7 between the 2023 monitoring report (0.892, local field method) and the 2026 verification report (0.07, national default), a discrepancy that directly affects the carbon calculation and is not explained in the extracted record
• ⚠FPIC, safeguards, and benefit-sharing are reported as conducted/described in the 2026 verification report but as not conducted/not described in the 2024 monitoring report, creating uncertainty about when these obligations were actually met
• ⚠CORSIA eligibility is confirmed while CCP status is not stated in any available document, leaving the dual-channel allocation question unresolved
• ⚠Eight corrective action requests were raised during verification (stove stacking in 5–6% of households, usage-rate capping), indicating the project did not meet its own monitoring assumptions on first pass

Credit Vintages