Nepal Biogas Support Program - CPA 1: 20,000 digesters

Audit Analysis

The Nepal Biogas Support Program is a large-scale (20,000 digesters) Gold Standard project with VVB-confirmed additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but it is undermined by the absence of a stated buffer pool, unresolved earthquake-related reversal events in the latest verification report, a project-specific baseline, and numerous cross-document contradictions in ERR figures, FNRB values, and monitoring methodology. The project delivered roughly 90% of the pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, suggesting modest under-delivery rather than over-crediting, but the documentation gaps and data inconsistencies limit confidence in the overall claim.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Earthquake-damaged and abandoned digesters were reported in the 2017 verification report but the 2025 verification report marks reversal events as 'not addressed,' leaving permanence risk unresolved in the most recent document.
• ⚠No buffer pool percentage is stated in any available document, leaving no quantified safety margin against reversal of issued credits.
• ⚠The monitoring period (Jan–Dec 2022) falls entirely after the stated crediting period (Jan 2013 – Jan 2020), creating ambiguity about which crediting period the verified emissions reductions actually belong to.
• ⚠Ten cross-document contradictions were identified, including conflicting FNRB methods (national default vs. local field), conflicting usage monitoring methods (annual survey vs. self-report), and a 3× discrepancy in claimed ERR figures (65,103 vs. 218,588 tCO₂e).

Credit Vintages