CPA 060 – Charcoal Stoves in Kenya

Audit Analysis

The BioLite Improved Cook Stoves programme in Kenya is a VVB-verified Gold Standard project with a quantified 5% leakage deduction and confirmed additionality, but it carries moderate risks from a project-specific baseline, absence of a stated buffer pool, unaddressed reversal risk, and four outstanding corrective actions. The monitoring data for 2023 is recent and the VVB (TÜV NORD) is reputable, yet several contradictions across documents—particularly on baseline method and safeguards—reduce confidence in the consistency of the project record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool percentage is stated in any available document, leaving permanence risk unquantified for a project where stoves can be discarded or replaced with open fires.
• ⚠Reversal events are explicitly noted as 'not addressed' in the verification record, a gap for a domestic cookstove project with inherent reversal risk.
• ⚠Four corrective actions (CAR 01–03, CL 01) remain open per the verification report, indicating unresolved compliance issues at the time of verification.
• ⚠The crediting period end date is not specified in the most recent validation report (2024), creating uncertainty about the project's remaining crediting window.

Credit Vintages