GS5658 VPA 21: Access to energy for local development and women's empowerment in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard domestic energy-efficiency PoA in Mozambique with a VVB-confirmed combined additionality test and no reversal risk, but undermined by eight cross-document contradictions—most notably a 2.2× gap between the verified and project-reported ERR figures and conflicting leakage justifications. The project-specific baseline, 0% leakage deduction, and unresolved fNRB unit discrepancy (91 vs 0.91) introduce moderate over-crediting and data-reliability concerns.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR (13,708 tCO₂e, verification report) is more than double the project-reported ERR (6,238 tCO₂e, monitoring report) for what appears to be a similar reporting window, raising a serious data-reliability question.
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report (Feb 2023) states leakage was 'quantified' while the later monitoring report (Dec 2025) describes it as 'deemed negligible,' yet the deduction in both cases is 0%.
• ⚠fNRB value appears as 91 in the verification report and 0.91 in the monitoring report—a 100× unit discrepancy that undermines confidence in the emissions calculation.
• ⚠Material findings in the verification report included corrective-action requests on start-date evidence, survey methodology, wood-to-charcoal conversion factor, and grievance-mechanism demonstration, indicating the VVB identified substantive gaps during verification.

Credit Vintages