Solar cooking in Chad, Touloum (VPA2)

Audit Analysis

The Touloum solar cooking VPA in Chad has a verified investment-test additionality and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is undermined by a project-specific baseline, absence of a buffer pool, a micro-scale cap on issuance, and an unusually large set of 35+ corrective actions raised by the VVB. Operational instability (delayed crediting-period renewal, CME funding gaps) and multiple cross-document contradictions further erode confidence in the credit claims.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠35+ corrective actions required by SustainCERT, including unresolved fNRB assessment, missing baseline survey evidence, and unaddressed double-counting risk across VPAs
• ⚠Micro-scale cap applied to Touloum (VPA-02) issuance, capping 11,644 tCO2e to 10,000 VERs, indicating the project exceeded its eligible credit volume
• ⚠Crediting-period renewal delayed by more than one year due to lack of stable financial resources and organizational issues at the CME
• ⚠FPIC not conducted despite the project serving rural communities in Eastern Chad
• ⚠Contradiction in total ERR claimed: 34,561 tCO2e (Jan 2025 monitoring report) vs 16,137 tCO2e (Sep 2025 monitoring report), a 53% discrepancy

Credit Vintages