Energy efficiency improvement project leading to multiple sustainable development benefits

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard improved cookstove project in Uganda has confirmed additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is undermined by an extensive list of material findings in the verification report—including an unaccounted traditional stove in use, sampling methodology inconsistencies, and calculation errors. A five-fold discrepancy between the validation report's ex-ante estimate (579,879 tCO₂e) and the verification report's lifetime claim (115,481 tCO₂e) raises serious questions about the reliability of the underlying data. The monitoring report's poor quality (wrong template, date errors, non-correlating values) further erodes confidence in the verified figures.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠A traditional stove was observed in use alongside the project stove (serial PES39700) during the on-site visit and was not accounted for in the emission reduction calculation, directly inflating verified ERRs.
• ⚠The validation report (2021) states a lifetime estimate of 579,879 tCO₂e while the verification report (2023) claims only 115,481 tCO₂e—a five-fold discrepancy with no documented explanation for the revision.
• ⚠The project claims emission reductions for a three-year monitoring period but the first monitoring survey was conducted only after two years, raising compliance questions about the monitoring frequency.
• ⚠Reversal events are explicitly noted as 'not addressed' in the verification report, and no buffer pool percentage is stated, leaving permanence risk unquantified.
• ⚠The monitoring report was prepared using an outdated GS4GG template, contains date format errors, non-correlating SDG impact values, and a missing calculation for the baseline adjustment parameter μY,i,j.

Credit Vintages