UpEnergy-Social and Climate Impact Programme- Cooking Devices VPA-26

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cooking-device project in Malawi with VVB-confirmed additionality and verified usage rates, but weakened by a project-specific baseline, a thin 0% leakage justification, the absence of a stated buffer pool, and a notable discrepancy between the PDD and an earlier monitoring report on total emissions reductions. No verified ERR figure is available for the 2024–2025 monitoring period, limiting the ability to confirm actual delivery against the ex-ante estimate.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No verified ERR figure is available for the 2024-02-01 to 2025-01-31 monitoring period, making it impossible to confirm actual delivery against the 178,799 tCO2e ex-ante estimate.
• ⚠The PDD (2024) reports a lifetime ERR of 178,799 tCO2e while the 2020 monitoring report cites 261,248 tCO2e — a 31% discrepancy that is not explained in the extracted record.
• ⚠Leakage is set at 0% with only a 'deemed negligible' justification; for a cooking-device project where displaced fuel could be redirected, no quantitative leakage analysis is documented.
• ⚠The verification report (2025) records reversal events as 'not addressed' rather than explicitly confirming their absence, even though the 2024 monitoring report states none were reported.

Credit Vintages