Domestic Biogas Project for rural households in India

Audit Analysis

A long-running domestic biogas project (since 2017) on Gold Standard using the well-established AMS-I.E. methodology, but the 2024 verification report raised 12 material findings and 7 corrective actions, including a finding of adverse relevance that pre-project biogas units may have been included in credit calculations. The project's avoidance-based design limits permanence risk, but the volume of MRV and transparency deficiencies, combined with unresolved contradictions in key parameters (leakage, FNRB, FPIC), significantly undermines confidence in the integrity and accuracy of the claimed reductions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Finding of Adverse Relevance (FAR): the project proponent was instructed not to include biogas units commissioned before the project start date, indicating potential over-crediting from pre-existing infrastructure
• ⚠12 material findings and 7 corrective actions raised in the 2024 verification report, covering sampling transparency, ER calculation errors, missing SDG outcomes, and unaddressed removal of digesters in Uttarakhand
• ⚠Leakage deduction contradicts sharply between verification reports: 5% (2024) vs 95% (2022), a 19-fold difference that raises serious data-reliability questions
• ⚠FPIC status is contradictory: the 2022 validation report records FPIC as conducted, but the 2024 monitoring report records it as not conducted
• ⚠No buffer pool percentage is stated in any available document, leaving permanence risk unquantified

Credit Vintages