Up Energy Improved Cookstoves Programme, Uganda – CPA No 038 supported by Republic of Korea

Audit Analysis

The Up Energy Improved Cookstoves project in Uganda has a verified combined additionality test and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but the verification report flagged multiple material inconsistencies in thermal efficiency parameters that go to the core of the MRV. The absence of a buffer pool for a cookstove project with inherent reversal risk, combined with a project-specific baseline and unresolved ERR discrepancies between the old and new crediting periods, moderate the overall quality. Documentation coverage is reasonable across 13 source documents, though three corrective actions remain open.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Multiple material findings (CL 01–CL 06) identify inconsistencies in rated thermal efficiency, ηold, ηnew, and average thermal efficiency values between the monitoring report, WBT reports, and the registered CPA-DD — the core MRV parameters for a cookstove project
• ⚠No buffer pool percentage is stated in any available document, leaving reversal risk (stove replacement with traditional cooking) unmitigated
• ⚠The verified ERR of 600,815 tCO₂e (2022, old crediting period) is roughly 5.3× the ex-ante lifetime estimate of 113,098 tCO₂e for the new 5-year crediting period (2024–2029), raising questions about project scale changes or data consistency
• ⚠Monitoring data (2022) predates the current crediting period (Dec 2024 – Dec 2029), so no verified performance data exists for the active period

Credit Vintages Exhausted