UpEnergy-Social and Climate Impact Programme- Cooking Devices VPA-23

Audit Analysis

The UpEnergy cooking-stove project in Malawi has a VVB-confirmed additionality assessment and consistent usage-rate reporting, but is undermined by a project-specific baseline, a 0% leakage deduction with an internally inconsistent 'quantified' justification, the absence of any stated buffer pool or reversal-risk mechanism, and a substantial list of corrective actions and material findings across verification reports. Multiple cross-document contradictions—particularly on fNRB methodology, leakage justification, and crediting period—reduce confidence in the data trail.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool or reversal-risk mechanism is stated in any available document, leaving permanence unsecured for a project whose credits depend on continued stove use over a finite lifespan.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% yet the 2025 verification report labels the justification as 'quantified' while the 2024 verification report called it 'deemed negligible'—the two characterisations are inconsistent and neither provides a transparent quantification.
• ⚠The fNRB methodology is reported as 'national default' in the 2025 verification report but as 'local field' measurement in the 2022 validation report, raising questions about which basis the 0.78 factor actually rests on.
• ⚠Thirteen corrective actions were required by the VVB, including a calculation-method error for charcoal moisture content, an inconsistent emission-reduction cap, and a failure to demonstrate compliance with activity requirements in the PDD.
• ⚠The crediting period is stated as 2021–2028 in the 2024 monitoring report but 2026–2030 in the 2025 validation report, creating ambiguity about which period the verified credits actually cover.

Credit Vintages