GS11935 GS11934 RVPA-35 Promoting sustainable use of biomass energy resources in targeted communities

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Nepal with VVB-verified additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but undermined by a project-specific baseline relying on a 2010 survey, absence of FPIC per the most recent validation report, no buffer pool, and a five-fold discrepancy in the ex-ante ERR between the PDD and the validation report. The project is in its first crediting period with no independent monitoring verification yet available.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Five-fold discrepancy in ex-ante ERR: the PDD (2024-09-13) states 9,429 tCO2e while the validation report (2024-09-27) states 47,149 tCO2e; the validation report value is privileged as the more recent and authoritative document, but the gap raises questions about the robustness of the ex-ante estimate.
• ⚠The validation report's Forward Action Request (FAR 4) flags that the baseline survey for firewood consumption was conducted in 2010, nearly 13 years before the crediting period start, raising serious concerns about baseline validity.
• ⚠FPIC is reported as not conducted in the most recent validation report (2024-09-27), contradicting an earlier validation report (2023-11-30) that stated it was conducted; the more recent value is privileged.
• ⚠Low extraction confidence across the document set indicates at least one key document was poorly readable, reducing reliability of the extracted data.

Credit Vintages