TASC Clean Cooking PoA – VPA 3 (Zambia)

Audit Analysis

The TASC Clean Cooking VPA 3 project in Zambia has a VVB-verified additionality assessment and no reported reversal events, but is undermined by a 0% leakage deduction, a project-specific baseline, a contradiction on whether FPIC was conducted, and a heavy load of 21 corrective actions and 16 material findings that point to significant data-quality and documentation gaps. Multiple ERR figures conflict across documents, making it difficult to confirm the true verified emission reductions. Overall, the project shows a reasonable design but weak execution and verification rigour.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠FPIC status is contradictory: the September 2022 validation report states FPIC was not conducted, while the earlier February 2022 report says it was; the more recent document is privileged, leaving a safeguard gap for a project serving vulnerable rural households.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% despite the verification report describing the justification as 'quantified' — a quantified assessment yielding zero is internally inconsistent for a clean-cooking project where displaced fuelwood could be consumed by other households.
• ⚠The verified ERR figure is 718,479 tCO₂e in the June 2024 monitoring report but 882,022 tCO₂e in the January 2024 verification report; a 23% discrepancy between the two authoritative documents undermines confidence in the credit quantity.
• ⚠The ex-ante lifetime ERR is 1,095,531 tCO₂e in the monitoring report but 2,100,276 tCO₂e in an undated appendix — a near 2× gap that makes pro-rata delivery checks unreliable.
• ⚠21 corrective actions were required, including substantive items such as demonstrating the mandatory usage-rate requirement with evidence and clarifying additionality compliance with CSA requirements, indicating the verification process identified material gaps that were not fully resolved before issuance.

Credit Vintages