Myanmar Stoves Campaign - Soneva in Myanmar - VPA No. 018

Audit Analysis

The Soneva Myanmar cookstove project is a Gold Standard energy-efficiency avoidance project with a quantified 5% leakage deduction and a named VVB (SustainCERT), but it is undermined by a critical contradiction in which the verification report does not confirm additionality (contradicting the earlier validation report), a project-specific baseline with no stated reassessment, and an extensive list of 30+ corrective actions and 14 material findings indicating significant calculation and documentation errors. The project over-delivered relative to its pro-rata ex-ante expectation (181%), which is positive for claim safety, but the reliability of the underlying data is questionable given the numerous corrections.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Additionality was confirmed at validation (2023) but NOT confirmed at verification (2024) — the more recent verification report states additionality was not verified by the VVB, creating a fundamental gap in the additionality chain.
• ⚠30+ corrective actions were required, including corrections to baseline calculations, emission reduction formulas, DFn values, and survey methodology — indicating the project's own calculations contained material errors.
• ⚠FPIC was not conducted, despite the project operating in Myanmar with local communities as end-users.
• ⚠Crediting period dates differ between the validation report (2022-2027) and the monitoring report (2021-2026), creating uncertainty about the actual project timeline.

Credit Vintages