GS5658 VPA 18: Water is Life, Madagascar

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard energy-efficiency project in Madagascar (Water is Life, VPA 18) presents significant integrity concerns: additionality was not confirmed by the VVB, the baseline is project-specific with no reassessment record, and nine corrective actions were required during verification. The verified ERR for a single monitoring period (54,321 tCO₂e) exceeds the entire lifetime ex-ante estimate (41,170 tCO₂e), raising serious over-crediting risk. While the project benefits from a named VVB, recent monitoring, and a consistent usage rate, the combination of unverified additionality, contradictory leakage treatment, and the ERR discrepancy warrants caution.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR (54,321 tCO₂e) for a single monitoring period exceeds the lifetime ex-ante estimate (41,170 tCO₂e) by 32%, indicating potential over-crediting
• ⚠Additionality was not verified by the VVB and no additionality test type is recorded in the available documents
• ⚠Nine corrective actions were required during the December 2023 verification, including corrections to baseline calculations, emission factors, and net benefit computations
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report states 'quantified' while the monitoring report states 'deemed negligible', yet the deduction is 0% in both cases
• ⚠FPIC was not conducted for this project

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