Improved Cookstoves for Rural Zambia

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Zambia with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reversal events, but hampered by a project-specific baseline, contradictory leakage justification, and numerous data inconsistencies across documents. The verified emissions reductions for the latest monitoring period represent roughly 79% of the pro-rata lifetime expectation, suggesting modest under-delivery. Multiple outstanding corrective actions and missing documentation lower confidence in the overall data quality.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report (2025-03-13) states it was 'not addressed' while the monitoring report (2025-03-11) claims it was 'deemed negligible' — the VVB's own assessment takes precedence, leaving the 1% deduction without a clear documented rationale
• ⚠Lifetime ex-ante ERR shows a 66× discrepancy between the monitoring report (31,766 tCO2e) and an undated appendix (2,100,276 tCO2e), raising serious questions about the baseline calculation
• ⚠Twelve or more corrective actions remain open, including missing survey records, calibration evidence, grievance logbook documentation, and inconsistent SDG parameter values between the MR and ER sheet
• ⚠Crediting period in the PDD (2020–2040, 20 years) differs substantially from the operational period in the verification report (2021–2026, 5 years), with no documented explanation for the change

Credit Vintages