Production of thermal energy from renewable biomass at Melhoramentos Papeis Ltda (CMPC group)

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard biomass heat project with VVB-confirmed additionality and low permanence risk, but severely undermined by systemic monitoring data quality issues, including missing hourly data for nearly half the monitoring period, numerous calculation errors, and over 30 material findings. The 0% leakage deduction is supported by a 'quantified' justification in the verification report, though the monitoring report characterises it as 'deemed negligible,' creating a credibility gap. Overall, the project's credit claims are plausible in principle but rest on a fragile evidentiary foundation.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Missing hourly boiler monitoring data for almost half the monitoring period (2015–2019), requiring conservative estimation using surrogate variables
• ⚠Over 30 material findings and 22 corrective actions reported across verification and monitoring documents, indicating systemic MRV weaknesses
• ⚠Grid emission factor fixed at the 2011 value (0.1988 tCO₂/MWh) for the entire 10-year crediting period, with the VVB flagging that it should have been recalculated annually
• ⚠Contradictory leakage justifications: the verification report states leakage was 'quantified' while the monitoring report describes it as 'deemed negligible'
• ⚠ERR discrepancy: the monitoring report and verification report both report 57,920 tCO₂e, but the issuance record shows only 47,185 tCO₂e issued

Credit Vintages