Improved Cookstoves for Rural Zambia

Audit Analysis

This is a certified Gold Standard cookstove project with VVB-confirmed additionality, a quantified leakage deduction, and no reported reversal events. However, the monitoring package has multiple internal inconsistencies, several required supporting documents were not provided, and the low extraction confidence reduces trust in the record.

Project Description

Over 700 million Africans cook on open fires, which are extremely inefficient and a primary cause of deforestation across the continent. Open fire cooking is also the leading source of household air pollution (HAP), causing over 4 million premature deaths each year, more than tuberculosis and HIV combined. Improved cook stoves (ICS) can reduce HAP by up to 50% and fuel use by up to 70%. TASC has distributed over 145,000 stoves in rural Zambia and reduced CO2 emissions by over 750,000 tonnes to date.  Our local team works closely with tribal authorities to introduce and train the local communities to use and maintain their stoves. After the stoves are distributed we continue to visit beneficiaries for ongoing monitoring in the community. We are proud to note that the heat sensors recently installed on our ICS as part of a pilot programme have objectively proven usage rates of 97% and at a minimum, single daily usage of the stoves. This pilot is done voluntarily in our attempt to calculate emissions reductions with impartiality. Project Impacts and Benefits The primary impact of the clean cooking programme is to reduce CO2 emissions by reducing the amount of non-renewable biomass that is used in household cooking. Consumption of local wood fuel is reduced by up to 70%. The introduction of an improved cooking solution also reduces exposure to the indoor air pollutants associated with traditional biomass cooking. Furthermore, in the poorest communities, the burden of collecting and/or purchasing fuel for cooking often falls on women and children. By reducing fuel collection and cooking time, this project ensures that women in project households have more time to invest in other productive economic development activities. Finally, the implementation of the project allows for the employment of the local community to assist with the distribution, logistics, management, and monitoring activities.   The project contributes to multiple Sustainable Development

Red Flags

• ⚠ The monitoring report lists several unresolved findings and corrective actions, including inconsistent monitoring-period dates and missing evidence for key sampling and distribution records.
• ⚠ There are contradictions in usage rates, emissions reductions, leakage treatment, and crediting-period dates across documents, which weakens reliability.

Credit Vintages

Cosa migliorerebbe questo punteggio

• Provide the missing supporting evidence requested in the monitoring report, especially survey records, KPT records, sales/distribution evidence, and the no-double-counting declaration.
• Resolve the internal contradictions in monitoring dates, usage rates, leakage treatment, and emissions reductions, and publish a clear reconciliation note tied to the latest monitoring report.

Questi suggerimenti indicano quali prove pubbliche aggiuntive potrebbero migliorare il livello di confidenza di questa valutazione. Non garantiscono un punteggio futuro più alto.