Yangxiang AWMS GHG Mitigation Project in Henan Province

Audit Analysis

A VCS-registered biogas/composting project in Henan, China, with VVB-confirmed additionality and quantified leakage, but undermined by a large volume of material findings (8 findings, 8 CARs, 6 CLs) during verification, absence of FPIC, no stated buffer pool, and a significant gap between the PDD's lifetime estimate and the verified monitoring-period results. The project delivered roughly 53% of the PDD's pro-rata expectation for the elapsed period, raising over-crediting concerns in the original design.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The PDD (Oct 2022) projects 887,970 tCO2e over the 10-year crediting period, but the verified monitoring-period result of 73,824 tCO2e represents only ~53% of the pro-rata expectation (~140,300 tCO2e), indicating the ex-ante estimate was substantially overstated.
• ⚠Eight material findings and eight corrective action requests were raised during verification, including failure to meet the VCS validation deadline, insufficient demonstration of grouped-project eligibility, missing baseline calculation rationale, and unclear flare-emissions accounting — all resolved but reflecting weak initial documentation.
• ⚠Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) was not conducted, despite the project involving eight swine farms and local communities in Henan Province.

Credit Vintages Exhausted