GS5658 VPA 22: Production and sale of efficient cookstoves in the urban areas of Maputo Province

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard cookstove project in Maputo, Mozambique shows a reasonable energy-efficiency design with a 23% leakage deduction and no reversal events, but is undermined by a serious additionality contradiction between the validation and verification reports, a project-specific baseline with no recorded reassessment, and an unusually large set of 28 corrective actions that expose gaps in MRV rigor, survey methodology, and data consistency. The verified ERR for the most recent monitoring period (2,599 tCO₂e) represents roughly 77% of the pro-rata lifetime expectation, indicating moderate under-delivery rather than over-crediting, but the data reliability concerns limit confidence in the figures.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Additionality contradiction: the validation report records additionality as not verified, while the 2025 verification report records it as verified; the specific additionality test type is not stated in any available document
• ⚠28 corrective actions required in the 2025 verification report, including fundamental gaps such as confirming the responsible party for claiming credits, correcting an inconsistency in the parameter Np,y between two sections of the report, and redesigning survey questionnaires to avoid bias
• ⚠93 end-users identified as purchasing multiple stoves, raising a potential double-counting risk that the project developer has not yet adequately justified
• ⚠FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent) was not conducted, despite the project distributing cookstoves to urban households in Maputo
• ⚠Leakage deduction is contradictory across documents: 23% in the 2025 verification report versus 0% in the 2023 verification report, and the PDD describes leakage as 'deemed negligible' while the 2025 report calls it 'quantified'

Credit Vintages