VPA 32 - GHG Emission Reduction through use of Bondhu Chula (Improved Cook Stoves) in Bangladesh

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard cookstove project in Bangladesh with a VVB-verified additionality assessment and a reputable verification body (TÜV NORD CERT), but undermined by a project-specific baseline, an extremely low 0.95% leakage deduction, the absence of any buffer pool, and an extensive list of data-quality findings and corrective actions spanning both the monitoring and verification reports. The ERR figures contain internal contradictions that reduce confidence in the reported credit volumes.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage deduction of only 0.95% (revised down from 5% in the 2016 verification report) is unusually low for a cookstove project where household-level substitution and reversion are plausible
• ⚠No buffer pool or permanence mechanism is documented, leaving reversal risk (stove breakage, reversion to traditional stoves) unmitigated
• ⚠The monitoring report contains two different claimed ER values (157,839 and 262,185) for the same period, and the verification report shows a downward revision from 350,831 to 262,185 between June and October 2023
• ⚠Over 30 corrective actions were required, including inconsistencies in emission factors, net benefit values, and ER calculations between the monitoring report and the ER worksheet
• ⚠Stove crediting beyond the 5-year design lifetime was challenged by the VVB and accepted only on the basis of a manufacturer's 7-year lifespan certificate

Credit Vintages