GS1247 VPA 14 Improved Kitchen Regimes NTARAMA (Bugesera), Rwanda

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard cookstove project in Rwanda has a confirmed additionality assessment and a recently reassessed baseline, but suffers from a severe gap between the PDD's assumed usage rate (90%) and the verified rate (23.3%), indicating the project delivers far fewer household-level benefits than originally designed. The absence of a buffer pool, a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible' (contradicted by the PDD's 5% figure), and numerous open corrective actions and forward action requests further weaken the project's robustness. While the verified ERR of 14,711 tCO₂e matches the claimed figure, the underlying performance shortfall and documentation inconsistencies raise meaningful concerns about long-term delivery and data reliability.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified usage rate of 23.3% is less than one-third of the PDD's assumed 90%, indicating the project delivers far fewer household-level benefits than designed; the earlier monitoring report also flagged a drop from 28.3% to 23.3% between periods
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with a 'deemed negligible' justification in the verification report, yet the PDD (dated 2025) references a 5% deduction — an unexplained contradiction that undermines the leakage treatment
• ⚠Thirteen contradictions across documents (ERR figures, fNRB values, usage rates, crediting period dates, leakage treatment, additionality test type) signal significant data-reliability and version-control problems
• ⚠Multiple Forward Action Requests (FAR 01–05) remain open, including VPA-level SDG indicator evaluation and fNRB reporting, indicating incomplete compliance with Gold Standard requirements

Credit Vintages