Utsil Naj - healthy homes for all in Mexico

Audit Analysis

The Utsil Naj cookstove project in Mexico is a long-running Gold Standard avoidance project (since 2011) with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reported reversals, but it carries moderate risk from a project-specific baseline, absence of a buffer pool, a weak leakage justification, and a significant FPIC contradiction between the PDD and the validation report. Multiple material findings and corrective actions related to fNRB parameter corrections and documentation template updates indicate ongoing quality-control issues that temper confidence in the credit volumes.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠FPIC contradiction: the PDD (2015) states FPIC was conducted, but the validation report (2019) records it as not conducted — the more authoritative validation finding is privileged, leaving a safeguard gap
• ⚠fNRB method is contradictory across documents (national default in the 2026 monitoring report vs. local field in the 2023 validation report), and material findings call for fNRB values to be revised down to 30–41 % for three of the four VPAs, which would materially reduce credit volumes
• ⚠Leakage was deemed negligible with a 0 % deduction in the 2019 verification, yet the 2026 monitoring report applies a 5 % conservative factor — the justification for the original 0 % is not well supported for a cookstove project where displaced cooking can shift to other fuels
• ⚠Usage monitoring method is inconsistent: the 2019 verification report describes an annual survey, while the 2024 monitoring report labels the method as 'assumed', weakening the MRV chain

Credit Vintages