VPA 1 - GHG Emission Reduction through use of Bondhu Chula (Improved Cook Stoves) in Bangladesh

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cook-stove project in Bangladesh with VVB-confirmed additionality and a reputable verifier (TÜV NORD CERT), but undermined by a project-specific baseline, an unaddressed permanence risk (no buffer pool), a very low leakage deduction, and an extensive list of data-quality findings and corrective actions. The project is CCP-eligible, which provides some third-party oversight, but the overall evidence base shows significant internal inconsistencies that reduce confidence in the reported emission reductions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism identified for a cook-stove project where users can revert to traditional stoves; no reversal-event data reported across any monitoring period.
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0.95% (per the 2023 verification report) is extremely low for a domestic cook-stove project; the 2023 monitoring report states 5%, creating an unresolved contradiction within the same reporting cycle.
• ⚠28 corrective actions were required by the VVB, including inconsistencies in emission-reduction calculations, missing sample calculations, and a challenged 28-year PoA duration against the Gold Standard 20-year maximum.
• ⚠Baseline is project-specific with no documented reassessment date; the 2022 validation report references a different crediting period (2021–2026) than the 2023 verification report (2014–2024).
• ⚠No lifetime ex-ante emission-reduction estimate is available in the extracted record, preventing a pro-rata delivery check against the 262,185 tCO₂e verified for the 2020–2022 monitoring period.

Credit Vintages