Fertinal Nitrous Oxide Abatement Project

Audit Analysis

The Fertinal N2O abatement project in Mexico is a process-based emissions reduction with VVB-confirmed additionality and a measured project-specific baseline, but it lacks a buffer pool, has a 0% leakage deduction with contradictory justifications across documents, and shows a declining emissions-reduction trend between monitoring periods. Material findings related to PDD completeness and QA/QC procedures were identified and corrective actions were required, indicating moderate documentation gaps.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the validation report (2016) deems leakage negligible, but the 2021 monitoring report does not address leakage at all, leaving the 0% deduction unsupported in the most recent document
• ⚠No buffer pool is in place to cover potential reversal risk if the abatement process is discontinued
• ⚠Emissions reductions declined from 238,996 tCO2e (2019 monitoring period) to 203,534 tCO2e (2020 monitoring period), a roughly 15% drop that warrants scrutiny of project performance consistency
• ⚠Three material findings were reported, including a PDD version mismatch and a QA/QC procedure that initially did not meet methodology requirements

Credit Vintages