Yangxiang AWMS GHG Mitigation Project in Liaoning Province

Audit Analysis

The Yangxiang AWMS project in Liaoning Province is a registered VCS waste-management project with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reported reversal events, but it carries significant integrity concerns stemming from 17 material findings (including missing baseline justification for both methodologies) and 4 corrective action requests raised during verification. The 0% leakage deduction rests on a thin 'deemed negligible' justification, and the grid emission factor was nearly doubled between PDD versions, raising over-crediting risk. Documentation breadth is adequate (16 documents) but quality is undermined by the volume of corrections required.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠17 material findings in the verification report, including missing baseline scenario justification for both AMS-III.F and AMS-III.D methodologies
• ⚠4 Corrective Action Requests (CARs) and 4 Clarification Requests raised during joint validation and verification
• ⚠Grid emission factor increased from 0.66125 (PDD Oct 2022) to 1.3 (PDD Feb 2024), a 97% increase in the factor used for electricity-avoidance credits
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% justified only as 'deemed negligible' for a waste-management project where diversion to alternative disposal is plausible
• ⚠Contradiction in leakage treatment: verification report states 'deemed negligible' while the monitoring report references a 'quantified' approach

Credit Vintages Exhausted