Smokeless Energy efficient cookstoves distribution in Rural India-3

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove distribution project in rural India with VVB-confirmed additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but undermined by 24 corrective actions, six substantive contradictions across documents, and the absence of any stated buffer pool to cover the inherent permanence risk of cookstove replacement or disuse. The verified emissions reductions (32,522 tCO₂) sit well below the pro-rata ex-ante expectation, which is conservative but also signals that the ex-ante estimate may have been optimistic.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠24 corrective actions required in the November 2025 verification report, spanning calculation inconsistencies, missing safeguarding evidence, incorrect methodology title, and unverified retroactive start date
• ⚠Six substantive contradictions between documents on key parameters including ERR figures, usage rate, FNRB method, safeguards status, monitoring method, and crediting period start date
• ⚠PDD assumed a 100% usage rate while the monitoring report applied 90%, a material parameter shift that was not flagged as a contradiction in the PDD
• ⚠Project classified under the 'industrial' sector despite being a domestic cookstove distribution project, raising questions about registry categorisation accuracy

Credit Vintages