Cookstoves methodology.
V4 cookstove methodology with Hindi-language community interview protocol and stove-use verification.
Overview
Cookstove projects represent one of the largest categories of voluntary carbon credits issued in India, and one of the most scrutinised following a series of over-crediting findings published between 2023 and 2025. The core issue is methodological: AMS-II.G and the TPDDTEC framework both permit monitoring based on distribution records rather than use records. V4's cookstove methodology adds a mandatory in-household verification step conducted in Hindi and regional languages, tracking whether each registered stove is in active daily use, what fuel it is displacing at what fraction, and whether any stoves have been abandoned or repurposed.
The gap
Post-2024 over-crediting findings revealed that stove distribution is not stove usage. No global methodology mandates in-household use verification in Hindi.
V4 extensions
- +Hindi-language community interview protocol (in-household use verification)
- +Stove usage pattern tracking (frequency, replacement)
- +Fuel displacement actual vs claimed
- +Post-issuance stove status verification
Assessment pillars for cookstoves projects
Additionality (stove displacement baseline)
Permanence (stove in continued use)
Monitoring (usage verification, not just distribution)
Social safeguards (health outcomes)
Leakage (fuel switching effects)
Common findings in cookstoves projects
- -Distributed stoves not in active use
- -Fuel displacement claimed at 100% vs verified 40-60%
- -Community interviews revealing secondary stove usage
- -Post-issuance stove abandonment rates of 20-35%
Methodology update log
Post-issuance abandonment rate assumptions revised downward following 2025 field survey data.
Hindi-language interview script updated to version 3.1 with improved stove identification protocol.
Fuel displacement verification split into primary fuel, secondary fuel, and seasonal fuel categories.
TPDDTEC cross-reference table updated following Gold Standard methodology revision.