Hezhang Rural Methane Digesters Project in Guizhou Province

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard rural biogas project in Guizhou with VVB-confirmed additionality but significant documentation and compliance weaknesses, including seven corrective actions, a project-specific modeled baseline, contradictory leakage justifications across verification reports, and no FPIC conducted. The verified emissions reductions are broadly consistent with the pro-rata ex-ante expectation (~98%), but the ERR figures differ materially between the 2017 and 2019 verification reports, and several key parameters (FNRB, buffer pool, CORSIA/CCP status) are absent from the record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Seven corrective actions were required in the 2019 verification report, including non-compliant GWP for methane, an invalid methodology version at registration, and an unreported stakeholder feedback round
• ⚠FPIC was not conducted for a rural community project, and the 2019 verification report notes stakeholder feedback round outcomes were not reported in the Passport
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the 2019 verification report states leakage was 'quantified' while the 2017 verification report states it was 'deemed negligible', yet the deduction is 0% in both cases
• ⚠Total ERR figures differ by nearly a factor of two between the 2017 report (183,706 tCO₂e) and the 2019 report (98,187 tCO₂e), with no clear explanation in the extracted record

Credit Vintages