GS5047 VPA36 African Improved Cookstoves and Clean Water Programme: Nyungwe Rainforest Cookstove Project IV

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Rwanda with VVB-confirmed additionality and a conservative FNRB of 0.98, but undermined by a project-specific baseline, a 0% leakage deduction with a weak 'deemed negligible' justification, no stated buffer pool, and multiple material findings revealing data-quality weaknesses in the MRV system. The project is functional but carries moderate over-crediting and permanence risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible' in a cookstove project where household reversion to traditional cooking is a well-documented risk
• ⚠Multiple material findings in the verification report: inconsistent stove counts, monitoring period date errors, survey methodology issues (wrong TDR used for Age Group 1), and a 1.65% broken-stove rate
• ⚠Project-specific baseline rather than a jurisdictional or standardised baseline, reducing robustness of the counterfactual

Credit Vintages