Meru Improved Cook Stoves

Audit Analysis

The Meru Improved Cook Stoves project has a VVB-confirmed combined additionality test and a locally measured fNRB, but is undermined by an extensive list of material findings, contradictory leakage justifications, a significant usage-rate decline (95% assumed to 84% verified), and the omission of 154 stoves due to missing carbon rights forms. The project consistently under-delivered relative to PDD estimates across multiple monitoring periods, and no buffer pool or permanence mechanism is documented. Data quality issues across the monitoring and verification reports raise concerns about the reliability of the verified figures.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠154 stoves were omitted from emission reduction calculations due to missing Carbon Rights Forms, creating a gap in the verified reduction base
• ⚠Stove construction was halted in April 2012, yet the project continued to claim reductions, raising questions about the ongoing operational basis of the credit
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report (2017) states leakage was 'quantified' while the monitoring report (2017) states it was 'deemed negligible', with a 0% deduction applied
• ⚠Usage rate dropped from 95% assumed in the PDD to 83.94% verified in the 2017 monitoring report, a gap of over 11 percentage points
• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism is documented in the extracted record, leaving reversal risk from stove damage or abandonment unaddressed

Credit Vintages