GS11935 GS11934 RVPA-45 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), a contradictory 100% usage-rate assumption, and identical claimed/verified emission figures that raise questions about independent verification. The low extraction confidence and multiple inter-document contradictions further erode confidence in the data integrity.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Usage rate assumed at 100% in the validation report contradicts a value of 1 in the appendix — a fundamental parameter discrepancy that could inflate credits by orders of magnitude
• ⚠Total ERR claimed (47,333 tCO2e) is identical to total ERR verified, with no monitoring period stated, making it impossible to confirm independent measurement
• ⚠No buffer pool percentage stated and reversal events explicitly 'not addressed' for a cookstove project with inherent equipment-failure and replacement risk
• ⚠FPIC status contradicts between the 2023 and 2024 validation reports; the more recent (2024) report states FPIC was not conducted
• ⚠Min extraction confidence is rated low, indicating at least one key document was poorly readable

Credit Vintages