GS11677 GS11902 Malawi Biomass Energy Conservation Programme CPA 26

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove distribution project in Malawi with a VVB-verified investment additionality test, a quantified 5% leakage deduction, and no reported reversal events. However, significant contradictions in ERR figures (243,647 vs 760,155) and crediting period dates (ending 2023 vs 2036) across documents raise data-reliability concerns, and the project-specific baseline with no stated reassessment timing limits confidence in the baseline. The overall picture is a reasonably structured project with moderate over-crediting risk due to unresolved figure discrepancies.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠ERR figures conflict across documents: the monitoring report and 2024 verification report both cite 243,647 tCO₂e, yet the same 2024 verification report also references 760,155 tCO₂e as a claimed figure — a 3.1× discrepancy that is unexplained in the extracted record.
• ⚠Crediting period is stated as 2016-10-15 to 2023-10-14 in the monitoring report (2023-02-08) but as 2021-10-15 to 2036-10-14 in the validation report (2022-07-04); if the earlier end date is correct, the 2024 monitoring period falls outside the crediting period.
• ⚠A corrective action explicitly requires verification that no CER and GSVER are issued for the same vintage, indicating a potential double-claiming exposure that has not yet been closed out.

Credit Vintages