Eritrea Community Boreholes

Audit Analysis

The Eritrea Community Boreholes project (GS-907) displaces firewood for water heating with borehole water, and while additionality is VVB-confirmed and no reversal events have occurred, the project carries significant data-quality concerns: 16 corrective action requests, an initial baseline water-boiling test error, and a 0% leakage deduction that conflicts with a 5% figure in an appendix. The FNRB value discrepancy (0.97 vs 0.79 across verification documents) and the 20% downward revision of verified ERs between two verification reports raise over-crediting risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠FNRB value of 0.97 in the December 2024 verification report conflicts with 0.79 in the March 2024 validation report — a 23% difference that directly inflates claimed credits if the lower value is correct
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% ('deemed negligible') in the verification report contradicts a 5% figure in an appendix; for a borehole project displacing firewood, reversion to wood-burning is a realistic leakage pathway
• ⚠Verified ERs dropped from 119,250 tCO2e (April 2024 VR) to 94,928 tCO2e (December 2024 VR), a 20% downward revision within the same verification cycle, indicating initial over-estimation
• ⚠16 corrective action requests and 3 clarification requests across verification cycles, including an initial baseline water-boiling test conducted with kerosene that had to be redone, signal persistent MRV data-quality weaknesses

Credit Vintages