GS1247 VPA 23 Improved Kitchen Regimes : Improved Cook Stoves in Chamanculo C, Maputo (Mozambique)

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard cook-stove project in Maputo, Mozambique has a confirmed combined additionality test and no reported reversal events, but is undermined by a questionable VVB (Gold Standard Foundation itself), multiple cross-document contradictions on leakage, usage rates, and fNRB method, and a cluster of open corrective actions on SDG indicators and monitoring. The 90% assumed usage rate versus a 79% verified rate in the 2016 verification report suggests a meaningful over-crediting risk that is not fully resolved in later documents.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠VVB listed as Gold Standard Foundation, the same body that administers the standard, raising a serious independence concern for the additionality and verification process
• ⚠Usage rate assumed at 90% (PDD, 2023) but verified at only 79% (verification report, 2016), implying roughly a 13% over-crediting gap that is not reconciled in later documents
• ⚠Leakage deduction contradicted across documents: 0% with 'deemed negligible' justification (verification report, 2016) versus 5% in the PDD (2023); the more conservative 5% figure should govern
• ⚠Five open Findings and Recommendations (FAR 01–05) on SDG indicators, fNRB reporting, and monitoring justification remain unresolved
• ⚠Crediting period is inconsistent: 2014–2021 in the 2016 verification report versus 2025–2030 in the 2025 validation report, making it unclear which period the 9,570 tCO₂e ERR figure applies to

Credit Vintages Exhausted