GS11935 GS11934 RVPA-41 Promoting sustainable use of biomass energy resources in targeted communities

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Nepal with a verified combined additionality test and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but significant gaps in permanence safeguards (no buffer pool, reversal risk unaddressed), an aggressive 100% usage-rate assumption, and contradictory records on FPIC and usage rates. The project relies on a project-specific baseline and a national-default fNRB, and no monitoring-period data is available to validate the ex-ante emission reduction estimate.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism is stated in any available document, leaving reversal risk (stove breakage, replacement with inefficient units) unmitigated
• ⚠Usage rate assumed at 100% in the validation report, contradicted by an appendix value of 1 — a discrepancy that materially affects the 47,273 tCO2e claim
• ⚠FPIC status is contradictory: the 2024 validation report states it was not conducted, while an earlier 2023 validation report states it was conducted
• ⚠Reversal events are explicitly 'not addressed' in the extracted record, with no buffer pool or credit retirement mechanism documented
• ⚠Minimum extraction confidence is rated low, indicating at least one key document was poorly readable and data reliability is compromised

Credit Vintages