Rwandan Improved Cookstove Project

Audit Analysis

The Rwandan Improved Cookstove Project has a verified investment-test additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is undermined by a project-specific baseline, no stated buffer pool, a suspiciously high 100% usage rate, and an extensive list of material findings and corrective actions spanning baseline validation, sampling methodology, and safeguards documentation. The project delivered only about 24% of its pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, indicating conservative crediting but also questioning the original baseline assumptions. Multiple cross-document contradictions and unit errors further erode confidence in the data record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified emissions reductions of 484,726 tCO₂e represent only ~24% of the pro-rata ex-ante expectation (~1,999,000 tCO₂e for the 2-year monitoring period out of a 10-year crediting period), raising questions about the validity of the original baseline assumptions
• ⚠100% usage rate verified in the verification report is implausibly high for a cookstove project and was reported as 1.0 (fraction) in the monitoring report, indicating a unit or interpretation error
• ⚠Stove lifespan is inconsistently reported as 5, 6, or 7 years across the project description, emissions reduction sheet, and verification report
• ⚠Sampling plan used a 90/10 confidence level instead of the required 95/10 for large projects, as flagged in the verification report

Credit Vintages