GS12144 - TASC Clean Cooking PoA - VPA 7 Cicada Carbon (Zimbabwe)

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard clean-cooking PoA in Zimbabwe with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reversal events, but undermined by 12 cross-document contradictions, a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible,' a project-specific baseline, and no buffer pool. The verified ERR covers roughly 94% of the claimed figure for the monitoring period, suggesting reasonable delivery, yet the volume of discrepancies and material findings (seven CARs/CLs/FARs) raises meaningful data-reliability concerns.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Twelve contradictions across documents, including a 3.5× gap in verified ERR (1,024,387 in the verification report vs 289,923 in the monitoring report) and conflicting FNRB values (0.79 vs 0.89), significantly undermining data reliability.
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% justified only as 'deemed negligible' for a clean-cooking project where displaced fuelwood/charcoal use could shift to other households or sectors; an earlier version of the verification report described the leakage as 'quantified,' creating ambiguity.
• ⚠CORSIA eligibility confirmed while CCP status is not mentioned, creating potential dual-channel crediting risk.
• ⚠Seven material findings in the verification report, including a compliance-level finding (CL#01) requiring demonstration of additionality and Safeguarding Principles responses.

Credit Vintages