The Breathing Space Improved Cooking Stoves Programme, India - VPA No. 05 Envirofit

Audit Analysis

The Breathing Space cookstove project in India has a VVB-confirmed additionality assessment and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is undermined by a project-specific baseline with no recorded reassessment, the absence of any buffer pool or permanence mechanism, and a cluster of data-quality issues flagged across 11 material findings. The most serious concern is a 2.8-fold discrepancy in the net reduction factor between the PDD (0.322) and the verification report (0.8965), combined with a usage-rate assumption of 100% against a verified 81.2%, which together raise meaningful over-crediting risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Net reduction factor (fNRB) differs by a factor of ~2.8 between the PDD (0.322) and the 2018 verification report (0.8965); the material findings note the inconsistency was 'resolved by using a state-specific weighted average,' but the underlying basis for the PDD value is unexplained.
• ⚠Usage rate was assumed at 100% in the ex-ante design but verified at only 81.2% in the 2018 monitoring report, a 19-percentage-point gap that inflates claimed savings relative to actual stove utilisation.
• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism is recorded for a project whose stoves have a finite service life; reversal risk from stove replacement or abandonment is unaddressed.
• ⚠Five corrective actions remain open, including a finding that the PoA-DD template was 'tampered' with inconsistent section numbers, and that VPA-DDs were not prepared using the current UNFCCC CAR01 form.
• ⚠CORSIA eligibility and CCP status are not stated in any available document, leaving dual-channel or double-claiming risk unassessed.

Credit Vintages