UpEnergy-Social and Climate Impact Programme- Cooking Devices VPA-13

Audit Analysis

The UpEnergy cooking-devices project in DRC has a VVB-verified combined additionality test and no reported reversal events, but suffers from a notable absence of a buffer pool, a 0% leakage deduction with contradictory justifications across documents, and 17 corrective actions flagged by the verifier. Multiple parameter contradictions (FNRB method, usage-monitoring approach, safeguards documentation) reduce confidence in the internal consistency of the project record. The verified ERR slightly exceeds the claimed figure for the monitoring period, which is a positive signal, but the overall documentation quality and methodological corrections needed place this project in a moderate-risk band.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠17 corrective actions were required by the verifier, including baseline emission-factor equation errors, inconsistent SDG impact calculations, and misaligned wood-consumption values across VPAs
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report (Aug 2024) states it was 'quantified' while the monitoring report (Jul 2024) describes it as 'deemed negligible', yet the deduction is 0% in both cases
• ⚠FNRB method is reported as 'local field' in the verification report but 'national default' in the monitoring report, creating uncertainty about which value (0.83) is actually supported by primary data
• ⚠A figure of 118,626.67 ERR appears in an unidentified 2023 document, roughly 4.4× the 27,215 claimed in the verification report, and its basis (lifetime vs. per-period) cannot be confirmed

Credit Vintages