VPA 15 - GHG Emission Reduction through use of Bondhu Chula (Improved Cook Stoves) in Bangladesh

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard improved cook stove project in Bangladesh with VVB-confirmed additionality and documented safeguards, but undermined by a project-specific baseline, absence of a buffer pool, a very low 0.95% leakage deduction, and an extensive list of data-quality findings and corrective actions across the monitoring and verification records. The ERR figures contain internal contradictions that make it difficult to confirm the project is delivering within its ex-ante expectations.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism is documented for a project whose credits depend on continued stove use over a 10-year crediting period; reversal risk (stove breakage, reversion to traditional stoves) is unaddressed.
• ⚠28 material findings and 24 corrective actions were raised in the verification report, including inconsistent emission-reduction values between the monitoring report and the ER worksheet, missing sample calculations, and unit inconsistencies for key parameters (fNRB, ηb, ηp).
• ⚠The leakage deduction of 0.95% (2023 verification report) is very low for a domestic cook-stove project where user reversion to traditional stoves is a realistic risk; the earlier 2016 verification report used 5%.
• ⚠ERR figures are internally contradictory: the monitoring report lists both 157,839 and 262,185 as claimed values, and the two verification reports show verified ERR of 350,831 (2022) and 262,185 (2023), making it impossible to confirm a consistent delivery trajectory.
• ⚠The project-specific baseline has no documented reassessment date, and no lifetime ex-ante ERR estimate was found in the extracted record, preventing a meaningful pro-rata delivery check.

Credit Vintages