GS1247 VPA 54 Eritrean District Boreholes

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard borehole project in Eritrea provides domestic water access to reduce firewood-based cooking emissions, with VVB-verified additionality and no reported reversal events. However, the absence of a buffer pool, a 0% leakage deduction with contradictory justifications across documents, and a large number of unresolved corrective actions (many at the PoA level) introduce material uncertainty. The 12 documented contradictions—particularly in ERR figures, FNRB values, and FPIC status—undermine confidence in the data reliability.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool is in place for an energy-efficiency project where borehole breakdown could cause reversion to firewood cooking, creating unmitigated reversal risk
• ⚠12 contradictions across documents, including a 22× discrepancy in claimed ERR (3,620 vs 80,000 tCO2) and conflicting FNRB values (0.97 vs 0.85), indicating significant data-reliability issues
• ⚠FPIC status is directly contradicted: the 2023 monitoring report states it was not conducted, while the 2025 validation report states it was
• ⚠Over 20 corrective actions remain open, covering additionality of retroactive VPAs, methodology version, leakage analysis, and monitoring transparency
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% in the 2023 monitoring report but the PDD (2023-06-29) specified a 5% deduction, and the justification shifts between 'quantified' and 'deemed negligible'

Credit Vintages