VPA 175 EcoZoom Improved Stove Programme, Uganda

Audit Analysis

The EcoZoom Improved Stove Programme in Uganda is a Gold Standard cookstove project with a combined additionality test and a project-specific baseline reassessed in 2024, but it is undermined by a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible' (contradicted by the PDD's 5% quantified figure), the absence of a buffer pool, and a Kitchen Performance Test that was not conducted in the current monitoring period. Eleven cross-document contradictions—including conflicting additionality verification status, fNRB methodology, and ERR figures—erode confidence in the data. The extensive list of corrective actions and further-assessment-required items signals ongoing documentation and methodology-compliance gaps.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Kitchen Performance Test (KPT) was not conducted in the current monitoring period; results from a prior period (MP2) were applied, weakening the efficiency claim
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% is justified only as 'deemed negligible' in the verification report, while the PDD records a 5% quantified deduction — an unresolved contradiction that inflates net credits
• ⚠No buffer pool is recorded for the project, leaving no financial backstop against potential reversal or over-crediting
• ⚠Additionality VVB verification status is contradictory: the verification report (2023) records it as not verified, while the validation report (2025) records it as verified
• ⚠The monitoring report (2022) records a total ERR of 6,089 tCO2e, while the verification report records 40,763 tCO2e — a six-fold discrepancy that cannot be reconciled from the available documents

Credit Vintages