GS1247 VPA 181 Zoba Debub Community Boreholes

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard borehole project in Eritrea has a verified additionality assessment and no reversal events, but is undermined by a significant baseline test error (kerosene used in the original BWBT), a usage-rate cap contradiction (95% reported vs 90% PDD cap), and the need to re-bundle seven VPAs to manage credit overage. The project's data integrity and claim safety are materially weakened by these issues, despite otherwise reasonable leakage treatment and conservative fNRB assumptions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Original Baseline Water Boiling Test was conducted using kerosene to light the fire, producing an anomalously low value (0.3 kg) that underestimated emission reductions; the test was redone in August 2018 yielding 0.8892 kg, and VPAs 65–70 had to be re-bundled into seven new VPAs (176–182) to manage the resulting credit overage.
• ⚠Usage rate is reported at 95% in the 2024 verification report, but the PDD (2023) and a corrective action explicitly cap the usage rate at 90% due to BAMG changes — a 5-percentage-point discrepancy that inflates claimed reductions.
• ⚠The monitoring period (Jan 2023 – Dec 2024) extends beyond the stated crediting period (Oct 2016 – Oct 2023), creating ambiguity about which period the 79,172 tCO2e figure covers and whether credits are being issued for periods outside the approved crediting window.
• ⚠Extensive list of corrective actions and findings across multiple verification cycles, including unresolved items on duplication checks, grievance evidence, and sampling design, indicating persistent MRV weaknesses.

Credit Vintages