CPA 054 – Charcoal Stoves in Kenya

Audit Analysis

The BioLite charcoal stove project in Kenya demonstrates a solid additionality case (combined test, VVB-confirmed) and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is held back by a project-specific baseline, the absence of a buffer pool, and a high volume of corrective actions and material findings across multiple verification cycles. The project delivered roughly 478% of the pro-rata lifetime expectation for the six-month monitoring period, indicating strong over-delivery, though the PDD date falling within the monitoring period raises a data-consistency question. CORSIA eligibility without a stated CCP position introduces a dual-channel risk that is not fully resolved in the available record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool percentage is stated in any available document, leaving permanence risk unquantified for a 15-year crediting period.
• ⚠The PDD (dated 2024-11-18) falls within the monitoring period (2024-07-01 to 2024-12-31), which is atypical and raises questions about whether the lifetime ERR estimate of 1,498,873 reflects the original or a revised baseline.
• ⚠Baseline method is recorded as 'project-specific' in the 2025 verification report but 'jurisdictional' in the 2021 PDD — the more recent, project-specific characterisation is weaker and was privileged.
• ⚠CORSIA eligibility is confirmed while CCP status is not stated in any document, leaving the dual-channel allocation risk unresolved.
• ⚠A large number of corrective action requests (up to 8 CARs in one cycle) and clarification requests (up to 11 CLs) were raised across verification cycles, indicating recurring documentation and data-quality gaps.

Credit Vintages