Kocaeli Landfill Gas to Electricity Project

Audit Analysis

The Kocaeli Landfill Gas to Electricity Project is a long-running Gold Standard project (operating since 2012) with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reported reversal events, but it is undermined by a 0% leakage deduction with contradictory justifications, the absence of a buffer pool, and an extensive list of corrective actions and material findings that raise concerns about data quality and reporting rigour. Several key parameters (FNRB, usage monitoring, CORSIA/CCP status) are not stated in the available documents, limiting the ability to fully assess claim safety.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% with contradictory justifications: the verification report (2018) describes the justification as 'quantified' while the monitoring report (2018) describes it as 'deemed negligible' — for a landfill gas project where some atmospheric escape is expected, a zero deduction warrants stronger evidence.
• ⚠No buffer pool is in place to protect against potential reversal, despite the project being a gas-capture (avoidance) project where operational disruptions could temporarily release uncollected methane.
• ⚠Over 30 corrective actions were raised across verification cycles, including discrepancies in emission reduction values, missing calibration records, inconsistent crediting-period dates, and missing quantitative justification for ongoing financial need — indicating recurring data-quality and reporting issues.
• ⚠FPIC was not conducted, and the ODA declaration to confirm absence of public funding was initially missing, raising questions about the robustness of the additionality and safeguards framework.

Credit Vintages