GS5658 VPA 13: Water is Life, Madagascar

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard PoA VPA in Madagascar displaces decentralized thermal energy (water heating) with a project-specific baseline and a 0% leakage deduction whose justification is contradictory across documents. The verification report covers nine VPAs simultaneously, making the verified ERR figure (64,317) incomparable to the VPA-13 ex-ante lifetime estimate (40,145), and the additionality test type is not stated in the extracted record. Multiple corrective actions and the absence of a physical site visit (remote audit only) further erode confidence in the data quality.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR of 64,317 is ~24× the pro-rata expectation (~1,964) for the 4-month monitoring period against the 40,145 lifetime ex-ante estimate, almost certainly because the verification report aggregates all nine VPAs in the PoA rather than VPA 13 alone — the figures are not on the same basis.
• ⚠Additionality test type and VVB confirmation are not stated in any extracted document, leaving the additionality claim unverified in the available record.
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report (2023-12-22) says 'quantified' while the monitoring report (2023-12-20) says 'deemed negligible', yet the deduction is 0% in both cases.
• ⚠No physical site visit was conducted due to COVID-19; only remote audit calls were performed, and a Follow-up Action Request (FAR 01) was raised to require a site visit in the next period.
• ⚠The verification report is dated 2023-12-22, which falls inside the monitoring period (ending 2023-12-31), raising questions about whether the verification was completed before the period closed.

Credit Vintages