VPA 12 - GHG Emission Reduction through use of Bondhu Chula (Improved Cook Stoves) in Bangladesh

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard cookstove project in Bangladesh has a VVB-confirmed additionality assessment and a quantified (albeit small) leakage deduction, but is undermined by the absence of a buffer pool, a project-specific baseline with no stated reassessment date, and an unusually large volume of material findings and corrective actions (~30 findings, ~25 corrective actions) that raise serious data-reliability concerns. The ERR figures contain internal contradictions within the same monitoring report, and the lifetime ex-ante estimate is not available, preventing a proper pro-rata delivery check.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Internal contradiction in the same monitoring report (2023-10-18): total ERR claimed appears as both 262,185 and 157,839, a 40% discrepancy that undermines confidence in the verified figure
• ⚠Approximately 30 material findings and 25 corrective actions logged in the 2023 verification report, including inconsistent emission-reduction values across MR sections, missing sample calculations, and unit inconsistencies in key parameters (fNRB, ηb, ηp)
• ⚠Baseline is project-specific with no stated reassessment date; the 2016 verification report used a 5% leakage deduction while the 2023 report uses 0.95%, a five-fold change without clear methodological justification in the extracted record

Credit Vintages