GS5047 VPA64 African Improved Cookstoves and Clean Water Programme: Ibanda – Makera Forest Cook Stove Project IX

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Rwanda with a named VVB (SustainCERT) and a verified monitoring period, but undermined by six inter-document contradictions on key parameters (ERR, FNRB, leakage, safeguards), a project-specific baseline with no documented reassessment, and the absence of any buffer pool or permanence mechanism. The VVB confirmed the claimed ERR of 58,350 tCO₂e after reducing the monitoring report's higher figure of 69,668, but the lack of a lifetime ex-ante estimate prevents a meaningful pro-rata delivery check.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Six contradictions between the verification report, monitoring report, and PDD on leakage treatment, ERR, FNRB, safeguards, grievance mechanism, and crediting period dates
• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism documented for a cookstove project where stove failure or abandonment is a realistic reversal risk
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% justified only as 'deemed negligible' while a separate monitoring report entry describes it as 'quantified' — the basis for the zero deduction is unclear
• ⚠Baseline is project-specific with no documented reassessment date, and the PDD appears to be a repurposed CDM PoA form rather than a purpose-built Gold Standard document

Credit Vintages Exhausted