gold standard validation report

GOLD STANDARD

VALIDATION REPORT

DET NORSKE VERITAS

BIOGAS CDM PROJECT OF

BAGEPALLI COOLIE SANGHA IN

INDIA

REPORT NO. 2010-0475 REVISION NO. 02

DET NORSKE VERITAS

GOLD STANDARD VALIDATION REPORT

Head Office:Gold Standard Validation Reportte, version 12, 2010-08-10

DNV CLIMATE CHANGE

SERVICES AS Veritasveien 1, 1322 HØVIK, Norway Tel: +47 67 57 99 00 Fax: +47 67 57 99 11 http://www.dnv.com Org. No: NO 994 774 352 MVA

Date of first issue: ConCert Project No.:2010-10-13 PRJC-226176-2010-CCS-IND Recommended for approval Approved by Organisational unit:Michael Lehmann Michael Lehmann DNV Climate Change and

Environmental Services Client: Client ref.:Bagepalli Coolie Sangha Mr. Venkatanarasappa

Summary: Project Name: Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli coolie sangha Country: India Methodology: AMS I.E , and AMS.I.C Version: AMS I.E , version 01 and AMS.I.C version 15 GHG reducing Measure/Technology: “Biogas based thermal energy generation” ER estimate: 42 855 tCO2e per year (average) Size

Large Scale Small Scale

Validation Phases: Desk Review Follow up interviews Resolution of outstanding issues

Validation Status Corrective Actions Requested Clarifications Requested Full Approval and submission for registration Rejected

DNV Climate Change Services AS (DNV) has performed the validation of the “Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli Coolie Sangha” in India on the basis Gold Standard requirements for Gold Standard CDM project. Hence, it is DNV’s opinion that the project, as described in the project design document of 27 August 2009 and Gold Standard Passport version 02 dated 17 June 2010. meets all relevant Gold Standard CDM project requirements. Hence, DNV requests the registration of the “Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli Coolie Sangha” project as a Gold Standard CDM project activity.

Report No.: Subject Group:2010-0475 Environment

Indexing terms Report title: Key wordsBiogas CDM Project of Bagepalli coolie sangha Climate Change

Kyoto Protocol Validation Clean Development Mechanism

Work carried out by: Astakala Vidyacharan, K.Venkata Raman, Shilpa Swarnim

Work verified by:

Felipe Lacerda Antunes

Date of this revision: Rev. No.: Number of pages:

26 June 2011 02 15

No distribution without permission from the client or responsible organisational unit

free distribution within DNV after 3 years

Strictly confidential

Unrestricted distribution © 2009 Det Norske Veritas AS

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Table of Content Page

1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Objective 1

1.2 Scope 1

2 METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................... 1

2.1 Desk review of the project design documentation and DNV Validation report 1

2.2 Follow-up interviews with project stakeholders 3

2.3 Internal Quality Control 3

2.4 Validation team 4

3 VALIDATION FINDINGS ......................................................................................... 4

3.1 Project Description 4

3.2 Project Eligibility 5

3.3 Gold Standard Criteria on Additionality 6

3.4 Sustainability Assessment 7

3.5 Stakeholders Consultation 12

3.6 Pre Feasibility Assessment 13

3.7 Monitoring Requirements and Sustainability Monitoring Plan 13

3.8 Environmental impacts 14

4 VALIDATION OPINION ......................................................................................... 15 Appendix A Corrective action requests, clarification requests and forward action requests. Appendix B Curriculum Vitale of team members.

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Abbreviations

BCS Bagepalli coolie Sangha CAR Corrective Action Request CDM Clean Development Mechanism CER Certified Emission Reduction(s) CH4 Methane CL Clarification request CO2 Carbon dioxide CO2e Carbon dioxide equivalent DNV Det Norske Veritas DNA Designated National Authority FAR Forward Action Request FCN Fair climate network GHG Greenhouse gas(es) GWP Global Warming Potential IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change LoA Letter of approval N2O Nitrous oxide NGO Non-governmental Organisation ODA Official Development Assistance PDD Project Design Document tCO2e Tonnes of CO2 equivalents UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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1 INTRODUCTION Bagepalli Coolie Sangha (BCS) has commissioned DNV Climate Change Services AS (DNV) to perform a Gold Standard validation of the “Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli coolie sangha” in India (hereafter called “the project”) against Gold Standard (GS) requirements for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. This report summarises the findings of the validation of the project, performed on the basis of GS requirements for CDM projects. The project was registered as a CDM project on 28 August 2009 (UNFCCC Ref # 2591).

1.1 Objective The purpose of a validation is to have an independent third party assess the project design. In particular, the project eligibility as Gold Standard project, possible deviations in GHG emission reduction estimation (Gold Standard conservativeness principle), Gold Standard criteria on additionality, the project’s sustainability assessment and monitoring plan and the Gold Standard criteria for stakeholder consultation are assessed..

1.2 Scope The scope of this validation has only included an assessment of the additional criteria presented in the Gold Standard for CDM project, as described in the Gold Standard Passport dated 17 June 2011 provided for the project activity by Bagepalli Coolie Sangha, as the project is already registered as a CDM project (UNFCCC Ref # 2591) on 28 August 2009. The findings and conclusions on the project’s compliance with the Gold Standard requirements is recorded in this document. However, this document must be seen in conjunction with the validation report and protocol for the project (DNV Report No: 2008-1048, rev. 01 dated 8 September 2008) /2/, as well as the final CDM-Project Design Document of 27 August 2009./1/

2 METHODOLOGY The validation consisted of the following two phases:

I a desk review of the project design documentation and validation report.

II follow-up interviews with project stakeholders

The following sections outline each step in more detail.

2.1 Desk review of the project design documentation and DNV Validation report The following tables list the documentation that was reviewed during the validation.

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Documentation provided by the project participants /1/ CDM-PDD for project activity “Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli Coolie Sangha”

in India, Version 06 dated 27 August 2009. /2/ DNV Validation report; “Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli Coolie Sangha”;Report

No: 2008-1048, rev. 01 dated 8 September 2008 /3/ Gold Standard Passport, version 02, Dated 17 June 2011 /4/ Stakeholders Participants list (Dated 13 October 2009 – 17 October 2009) /5/ Gold standard local stakeholder consultation report 13 October 2010 /6/ Local stakeholder consultation review (Project ID : GS – 768 Version : GS

v2.1,Date of submission: 4 December 2009 /7/ ADATS - FCF Financial Statement, Dated 21 October 2010 /8/ Gold Standard Passport, version 01, dated 21 February 2011 /9/ CER Agreement with Project participants,1st Aug,2010 /10/ Health Insurance policy of ADATS, Policy no:071502/48/10/05/00000413, Dated

21 October 2010 /11/ Blind Sustainability index;Bagepalli coolie sangha (BCS); 13 October 2009 /12/ Ramachandra, T.V., Vamshee Krishna S and Shruthi, B.V. - 2005. Decision support

system for regional domestic energy planning. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research. Vol 64, pp 163-174.

/13/ Board resolution letter for CDM consideration dated – 03 March 2008 /14/ BCS;Excel sheet of survey conducted (BCS-Baseline calculations with FW

survey.xls

Methodologies, tools and other guidance by the CDM Executive Board & Gold standard

/15/ CDM Executive Board: Validation and Verification Manual, version 1.2 /16/ CDM Executive Board: Baseline and monitoring methodology AMS I.E, version 01 /17/ CDM Executive Board: Baseline and monitoring methodology AMS I.C, version 15

/18/ Gold Standard Toolkit Version 2.1, June 2009 /19/ Gold Standard Toolkit version 2.0 July 2008

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Documentation used by DNV to validate / cross-check the information provided by the project participants

/20/ N. H. Ravindranath and D. O. Hall. 1995. Biomass, Energy, and Environment: A Developing Country Perspective from India, Oxford University Press.

/21/ T.V. Ramachandra and G.R. Rao – 2005. Inventorying, Mapping and Monitoring of Bio-resources using GIS and Remote Sensing. In: Geospatial Technology for Developmental Planning

/22/ Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, 2006 - http://envfor.nic.in/

/23/ Karnataka at a glance, 2009, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Bangalore); Government of Karnataka ;2008-2009

/24/ GREENHOUSE GASES EMISSION AND POTENTIAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION: A CASE STUDY OF SEMI-ARID AREA IN SOUTH INDIA; K Lenin Babu, K V Raju; INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE 2009

2.2 Follow-up interviews with project stakeholders On 06 October 2010 DNV visited the project site, Bagepalli which is one the taluk of Chickballapur District and performed interviews with project stakeholders.

Date Name Organization Topic

/25/ 2010-10-06 1. Mr. Ram Estaves

2. Dr. Sudha Padmanabha

3. Mr. Sandeep

M/s Bagepalli coolie sangha

M/s Fair Climate network

M/s Fair Climate network

GS project consideration

Status of the Project Environmental

issues Resources, training,

procedures Financial plans of

FCN Interaction with

stakeholders and families involved in the Project activity

Monitoring plan and procedures

2.3 Internal Quality Control The validation report underwent a technical review performed by a technical reviewer qualified in accordance with DNV’s qualification scheme for CDM validation and verification.

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2.4 Validation team Type of involvement

Role Last Name First Name Country Adm

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Contract Manager Vidyacharan Astakala India Technical team leader (Validator)

Kakaraparthi Venkata Raman

India

Validator Vidyacharan Astakala India Assessor under training

Swarnim Shilpa India

Technical reviewer Antunes

Felipe

Brazil

3 VALIDATION FINDINGS

3.1 Project Description The project activity involves the implementation of 18,000 biogas digesters, each of 2 m3

capacity in 5 Taluks of Chickballapur District, to utilize the biogas generated for thermal applications in households, thereby replacing kerosene and non-renewable biomass. The technology used in the project activity is indigenously available in India and is based on the Deenbandhu digester model approved by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources.

Each individual unit consists of a digester with a fixed non-movable gas space, gas connector pipe and the thermal unit or the stove. Gas is produced through anaerobic digestion of cow dung and stored in the upper part of the digester before being piped to the biogas stove in the kitchen. The gas pressure displaces the digested slurry into the compensating tank, which then can be used as manure. The project was planned to be implemented in three phases of 6000 units per year. The 1st phase of construction has already been initialized since 1 February 2010. During site visit it was verified that at present 1,870 digestors has been constructed and construction of 3,018 digestors is in progress.

Each digester comprises the following main installed components made of brick and cement:

A digester measuring 2.1 meter in diameter, and 1.545 meter internal height from bottom of digester to top of dome

45 cm high mixing tank with internal wall length of 45 cm

An optional additional acidification tank for pre-treatment of substrate may be built

An outlet tank with an outlet opening of 60 cm and a height of 25.7 cm above the ground, covered by a cement slab of 7 cm thickness and area of 1 m x 1.17 m

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A pipe of between 5 and 100 meter in length leading from the top of the dome to the stove

A 2-ring stove inside the house

The operation and maintenance of the plants have been taken by Bagepalli Coolie Sangha. BCS maintains a network of trained masons and supervisors who will train individual household members and also assist in maintaining close contact with the households to attend the operational and maintenance problems.

The expected operational lifetime of the project activity is 25 years. A renewable crediting period of seven years has been chosen with the starting date of the first crediting period as 1 January 2010.

3.2 Project Eligibility The proposed project activity must fit either in the Renewable Energy Supply category or of the End-use Energy Efficiency Improvement category, as defined below, to be eligible for Gold Standard registration. The proposed project activity classifies as a Renewable Energy Supply category project and hence is eligible as per Gold standard requirement.

The total thermal capacity of the project is worked out to be 33 MW thermal which is well below the 45 MW thermal to fit in as a small scale CDM project activity under the methodology I.C (version 15) /17/ and I.E (version 01) /16/.

The project was not previously announced to go ahead without the revenues from carbon credits. The project is in fact going to be implemented only with CER revenue.

The project activity will replace non-renewable biomass as well as kerosene. For the displacement of non-renewable biomass, the project applies the approved baseline methodology AMS-I.E - version 01 ”Switch from Non – renewable biomass for the thermal applications by the user” /16/, while for the displacement of kerosene AMS-I.C - version 15 “Thermal energy for the user with or without electricity” /17/ is applied. The application of the simplified baseline methodology of I.E “Switch from Non – renewable biomass for the thermal applications by the user” is justified as the project activity satisfies the following applicability conditions of the methodology: a) This project activity will replace non-renewable biomass as well as kerosene with renewable energy (biogas). Biogas is included in the specified methodology as an example of a suitable end user technology: biogas stoves are deemed a measure that involves the switch to renewable biomass from fossil fuel (kerosene) and non-renewable biomass in the baseline. b) The project activity is not saving non renewable biomass accounted-for by another similar CDM project, i.e. the “Bagepalli biogas project” The villages selected for the proposed CDM project activity are different from the registered CDM project, as verified and cross checked from the list provided by the PP to differentiate villages selected to install the biogas units /9/.

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c) It is demonstrated by the excel sheet of survey conducted in the area /14/ that the average fuel wood use is higher than that considered for emission reduction Also, fuel wood is still the dominant fuel used in the project area. A study in the region (Greenhouse gases Emission and potential Carbon sequestration: A case study of Semi-arid area in south India) in 2009 /24/ also shows that fuel wood is still the dominant fuel and LPG penetration is very low at 0.05%. It was also supported by district statistics by the Government of Karnataka (Karnataka at a glance, 2009, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Bangalore) /23/,which clearly shows that fire wood is the dominant fuel used in nearly 77.67% of the families of Kolar (inclusive of Chickballapur district The application of the simplified baseline methodology of I.C “Thermal energy for the user with or without electricity” is justified as the project activity satisfies the following applicability conditions. a) The thermal capacity of the biogas plant is not specified by the manufacturer. However, the PP has computed the total thermal generation of all the 18 000 biogas plants (operating 4 hours per day) considered in the project activity to be 33 MW thermal which is well below the limit specified in the methodology (45 MW thermal). Also, this has been justified clearly in the PDD with references for the calculations. b) The proposed project activity is installation of biogas units at individual households and will not fall under co fired system and co-generation plant. c) The proposed project activity is not addition of renewable energy units in an existing renewable energy facility.

Hence the project activity is eligible under the Gold Standard activities (ecologically sound biomass, biogas and liquid bio-fuels). For detailed baseline discussions, DNV validation report (Report No: 2008-1048, rev. 01 dated 2008-09-08) /2/ , as well as the final project design documentation /1/ (of 27 August 2009) is to be referred to.

3.3 Gold Standard Criteria on Additionality

3.3.1 Previously announced projects screen DNV was able to verify that there was no public announcement of the Biogas project activity going ahead without CDM benefits. This claim has been verified through interviews and web searches. It has also been also demonstrated that the incentive from CDM was seriously considered in the decision to proceed with the project activity. DNV was able to verify the same through the presented Board minutes of meeting dated 3 March 2008 of BCS /13/. Since the start date of the project activity is after validation and registration of the project activity as CDM project, it was concluded that requirement of serious consideration of CDM prior to the implementation has been demonstrated and justified.

3.3.2 Additionality Tool The additionality assessment of the project is in accordance with Attachment A of Appendix B of the simplified modalities and procedures for small-scale CDM project activities as reported in PDD /1/. The additionality of the project has been established based on the

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investment barrier, barrier due to prevailing practice and other barriers. The additionality of this GS project should be seen in accordance with that verified and stated in DNV Validation report. /2/. The project was registered as a CDM project in August 2009.

3.3.3 ODA Additionality Screen The validation did not reveal any information that indicates that the project can be seen as a diversion of official development assistance (ODA) funding towards India.

As per Gold Standard the ODA is defined as a fund

To developing countries and multilateral institutions;

Provided by government agencies;

Whose main objective is the economic development and welfare of developing countries; and

Those are concessional in character, conveying a grant element of at least 25%.

This project activity has been implemented with the funds accrued from the forward funding by Fair carbon fund. The certified project finance information, with declaration of financier of non use of ODA, dated 22 March 2010, Ref no: FCF22032020UP118, has been provided as Annexure1 in Gold standard Passport under ODA Declaration, /3/ and the same has been verified to conclude that the project has been implemented completely with funds provided by Fair carbon fund in the form of carbon credits purchase.

Project proponent has duly submitted a written declaration of project’s Non-use of ODA along with Gold standard passport /3/. In the submitted ODA, dated 13 March 2010, the authorized representative of the Bagepalli Coolie Sangha expressly declares that there is no other ODA fund diverted either directly or indirectly to the project activity and was solely implemented from the forward funding received from Fair carbon fund.

PP also confirms that in case of the usage of any ODA funding, at any stage of project design or implementation, it will be made known to the Gold Standard immediately.

3.4 Sustainability Assessment The Gold Standard adheres to the definition of sustainable development as set out by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

As a requirement for the Gold Standard validation, the project has conducted an additional analysis and presented the Gold Standard ‘do no harm’ assessment and Gold Standard sustainable development assessment matrix.

DNV has been able to validate the indicators through active interaction with members of the local population, which includes project developers, family members specifically women who actually operate the biogas plants, representatives of village level Coolie Sangha Units (CSU) village administrators, and NGOs who are direct stake holders to the project. Interaction with the members revealed that due to the project activity.

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There have been better environment conditions for population due to reduction in smoke levels

Significant reduction in water consumptions

Saved time in cooking has been utilized for other in-come earning activities.

Has contributed in bio-diversity

3.4.1 Do no harm’ assessment The safeguarding principles of the UNDP lead to ‘do no harm’ assessment. These principles are derived from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), eight goals that 189 United Nations member states have pledged to achieve by the year 2015. The aim of this self-assessment is to gain insight into the risk that the project might result in negative environmental, social and/or economic impacts that are serious enough for the Gold Standard to eliminate the project from the approval process.

‘Do no harm’ assessment was carried out for this project. The relevance of 3 safe-guarding principles, human rights, labor standards and environmental protection was assessed and it was claimed that there was no violation of the above mentioned safe guarding principles. The assessment was done based on 11 safe guarding questions pertaining to critical issues that may result in negative environmental, social and/or economic impacts. This self assessment confirmed that the risks breaching was low and that no mitigation measures are required for the project activity.

3.4.2 Sustainable development assessment matrix The Gold Standard sustainable development matrix addresses the development indicators as relevant for the project activity. The project selects 10 positive development indicators for assessment. The positive indicators selected are Air Quality, Water Quality and Quantity, Soil conditions, Other pollutants, Quality of employment, Livelihood of the poor, Access to affordable and clean energy, Human and institutional capacity, Balance of payments and Investments and Qualitative employments and Income generation. The preliminary scoring was assigned in respect to mitigation measure, relevance to achieving MDG and chosen parameters under each indicator. Justification of choices, data source and provision of references for the above selected indicators are also been satisfactorily provided. It indicates that the project is clearly contributing to sustainable development and the criteria identified are sufficiently substantiated.

During the site visit it was assessed that one of the sustainable indicators chosen by PP was soil condition and the chosen parameter under this indicator is stated as comparison of NPK content of soil treated with slurry and dung. The PP was asked to demonstrate what measures have been adopted by them for continual monitoring of soil’s NPK estimation. Another indicator used by PP while assessment of sustainable matrix is the water quality and quantity.

However, it was observed during site inspection that water is required for dung substrate preparation for the biogas plant. Thus there will be no net impact on the water quantity. In connection to it Corrective action requests were raised to PP asking to exclude these 2 indicators while doing sustainability assessment.

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PP had responded with their clarifications and has readily excluded the above mentioned parameters from the Gold standard passport.

The revised GS Passport has been received and correctly been evaluated (Refer to Appendix A at the end of this report).

The two indicators not accounted for assessment matrix are Biodiversity and Technology transfer and technological self-reliance. The reason accounted for non consideration of these issues are well justified as it is difficult to assess quantitatively the direct impact of the project on biodiversity, unless a thorough assessment of baseline biodiversity status is undertaken. Also in DNV’s opinion since there is no technology transfer the omission of Technology transfer and technological self reliance indicator is acceptable.

1. Indicator: Air quality (emissions other that GHGs)

The chosen parameter for this indicator are (a) No. of biogas units constructed and operating (b) Reduction in incidence of health problems due to better indoor air quality

Currently baseline situation is use of fuelwood and kerosene for cooking and hot water bath which in turn releases pollutants causing health problems especially to women and children. With this GS project activity the PP targets construction of 18,000 biogas units@6000/year which will help in reducing indoor air pollution. The positive score assigned by the project participant to the indicator is considered to be fair. The means of monitoring of the above parameter as stated by the PP in the GS Passport is from online monitoring of the number of biogas units constructed and operating and secondly community’s response to reduction in health problems after use of biogas. Extraction from online monitoring system will be updated on daily basis and annual stratified sample survey would be conducted by Bagepalli Coolie Sangha/CDM Consultant,

2. Indicator: Water quality and quantity

There will be a decrease in the quantity of water used for washing vessels after implementation of the project. The chosen parameter for this indicator is the water saved compared to baseline as perceived by the communities. At present cooking with traditional fuelwood stove and kerosene results in the vessels being covered with soot requiring more water to scrub and clean the vessels. There will be a decrease in the quantity of water used for washing vessels after implementation of the project as the vessels will not have soot.

It was found during site visit that water is required for dung substrate preparation for the biogas plant. Thus there will be no net impact on the water quantity. In connection to it, a corrective action request was raised to the PP asking to exclude this indicator while doing sustainability assessment. PP has readily excluded the above mentioned parameters from the Gold standard passport. The revised GS Passport has correctly been evaluated. Refer to Appendix A at the end of this report.

3. Indicator: Soil Condition

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PP sets the comparison of NPK content of soil treated with slurry and dung and community’s response to the use of chemical fertilizers after slurry application to fields as the chosen parameters for the above indicator. The slurry manure is considered far more superior to farm yard manure in respect of NPK content. It will reduce the use of chemical fertilizers to a certain extent.

However, during the site visit it was assessed that the comparison of NPK would require regular laboratory testing and evaluation. The PP was asked to demonstrate how this concern would be addressed by them and what measures have been adopted by them for continual monitoring of soil’s NPK estimation. In connection to it, a corrective action request was raised to the PP asking to exclude this indicator while doing sustainability assessment (Refer to Appendix A at the end of this report).

4. Indicator: Other pollutants

This indicator sets quantity of pathogens in slurry compared to that of dung as the main pollutant that will be reduced because of the project activity. The indicator is considered to be clearly and unambiguously defined. The score assigned by the project participant to the indicator is considered to be fair. It will be assessed during periodic laboratory testing of slurry and dung for load of pathogens by certified Laboratory, once in two years.

5. Indicator: Quality of employment

This indicator states that BCS will establish a workforce over the short and medium term and will keep a core team. In this indicator, improvement in quality of jobs is clearly stated. The current situation of the parameter is that women spend lot of time collecting fuelwood as there is no biogas construction activity in the project area. It is also explicitly explained that with the project implementation women can take up income generating jobs as they save their time and additional jobs are created due to the project activity. BCS will report for each monitoring period the income generation activities taken up women after the project activity and the payments made for construction of biogas units from online monitoring database. The indicator is considered to be clearly and unambiguously defined. The score assigned by the project participant is considered to be fair.

6. Indicator: Livelihoods of the poor

The implementation of the project activity will led to reduction of time in collection, processing and storage of fuelwood for cooking and hot water bath, reduced time for cooking and better social environment at home due to reduced drudgery especially for women. Hence the positive score assigned by the project participant is considered to be fair.

The chosen parameter would be monitored by stratified sample survey by Bagepalli Coolie Sangha/CDM Consultants.

7. Indicator: Access to affordable and clean energy services

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The “access to affordable and clean energy services” indicator is based in the energy demand and new energy generation capacity that is being built primarily to meet rising demand. The parameter chosen under this indicator is no. of biogas units constructed and operating which will be monitored by extraction from online monitoring system which will be updated on daily basis during preparation of GS monitoring report from online monitoring.

8. Indicator: Human and institutional capacity

The chosen parameter for this indicator is improvement in human and institutional capacity as perceived by the communities which will be monitored by PRA technique, annually by Bagepalli Coolie Sangha/CDM Consultant. The project aims the empowerment of women as they have more time now to take up other activities, more children can attend school in time, Skill development and institutional capacity of Coolie Sangha (CS) members in daily monitoring, organization and implementation of the BCS CDM project.

9. Indicator: Quantitative employment and income generation

Income generation at family level due to the project activity, as perceived by the communities is reported as the chosen parameters for this indicator which will be monitored by PRA technique, annually by Bagepalli Coolie Sangha/CDM Consultant. Currently large part of the time is spend going to the forests and other lands for fuelwood collection, processing them and storing them for daily use in cooking and hot water bath. Cooking on traditional cook stove also takes a lot of time, leaving very less time for other activities. Due to this project PP targets income generation activities taken up by women and also income from CERs after the initial period of CER revenue to the investor.

10. Indicator: Balance of payments and investment

The selected parameters for this indicator are foreign revenue to the project and money saved per family due to decrease in use of kerosene. Currently there is no 100% investment for family level energy programmes and kerosene is purchased for cooking and hot water bath. This parameter will be monitored via audited Account Statement for the project activity.

During the site visit it was assessed that one of the sustainable indicators chosen by PP was soil condition and the chosen parameter under this indicator is stated as comparison of NPK content of soil treated with slurry and dung. The PP was asked to demonstrate what measures have been adopted by them for continual monitoring of soil’s NPK estimation. Another indicator used by PP while assessment of sustainable matrix is the water quality and quantity.

However, it was observed during site inspection that water is required for dung substrate preparation for the biogas plant. Thus there will be no net impact on the water quantity. In connection to it Corrective action requests were raised to PP asking to exclude these 2 indicators while doing sustainability assessment.

PP had responded with their clarifications and has readily excluded the above mentioned parameters from the Gold standard passport.

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The revised GS Passport has been received and correctly been evaluated (Refer to Appendix A at the end of this report).

The two indicators not accounted for assessment matrix are Biodiversity and Technology transfer and technological self-reliance.

Fuel wood collection for daily use from the forests, and consumption of the same are linked to degradation of natural resource management. Demand for fuel wood from forests cause resource degradation. Due to the less dependence on fuel wood as a result of implementation of the project activity, there would be better regeneration of trees, shrubs and herbs in the forests and non-forest areas. Though empirical evidences show an improvement in biodiversity due to implementation of the project, this has not been considered for the present project activity because it would be difficult to assess quantitatively.

The reason (difficult to assess quantitatively the direct impact of the project on biodiversity) are well justified.

Also in DNV’s opinion since there is no technology transfer, the omission of Technology transfer and technological self reliance indicator is acceptable.

In DNV’s opinion, the sustainable development criteria identification process and the subsequent results are in full compliance with the Gold Standard criteria.

3.5 Stakeholders Consultation Fair Climate Network (FCN) has organized meetings and direct consultation through personal invitations prior to project implementation, with identified stakeholders as per the Gold Standard initial stakeholder consultation requirements. Key stakeholders involved in this project are the households in the villages and the gram panchayats (local government bodies).

The Gold Standard recommended agenda points and approach for the Local Stakeholder Consultation meeting was suitably followed. There were many concerns and comments raised by participants requested by local stakeholders on the project idea and these clarifications were addressed with full reasoning and closed during the meeting.

Blind sustainable development exercise was also carried out. Participants were asked which indicators they think are relevant to the project. These were listed and audience was asked to score them ‘positive’ ‘neutral’ or ‘negative’. The resulting sustainable development matrix was later mentioned in Sustainability Matrix Indicators report in the GS Passport /3/.

The outcome of the meetings in form of minutes of the meeting was made available to the CSU members during the monthly meeting that was held in the five taluks of the project activity. There were no further comments from the local stakeholders. /5/

The stakeholder consultation report /5/ and Gold Standard Passport /3/ was also uploaded on the ADATS website http://www.adats.com/cdm/bcs_biogas_gs.php for public comments. Invitation to send their comments was also extended to the 5 international NGO supporters (WWF, HELIO International, Greenpeace, Mercy Corps and REEEP) and the GS Local Expert based in India for the stakeholder Feedback Round. Email announcement of the download option of the reports to all the stakeholders on the invitation list to NGOs and related experts were included in the Passport and has been verified. Screen shots of Invitation to send their comments were extended to the 5 international NGO supporters (WWF, HELIO

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International, Greenpeace, Mercy Corps and REEEP) and the GS Local Expert based in India for the stakeholder Feedback Round. There was no feedback from above stated NGOs. The stakeholders’ report was also kept at the District Central Library, Bagepalli and District Central Library at Chickballapur for public comments. This was verified during site visit conducted in Bagepalli and also while interviews with stakeholders during site visit.

During validation of the project under CDM activity DNV had also interacted with the local stakeholders and confirmed their opinion on the project. Also from the presented documentation to DNV it is clear that the stakeholders identified, the procedures and outcomes are adequate. All identified stakeholders have welcomed the project and no adverse comments have been received.

3.6 Pre Feasibility Assessment A pre-feasibility assessment of a project by the Gold Standard is required if it is already operational or under construction at the time of first submission to the Gold Standard or if or if it is rejected for registration by the UNFCCC and one wish to apply for Gold Standard VER. For this project, since the start date of construction of bio-digesters for this project was not operational and was stated to be initiated during 1st week of February 2010, after registration of the project activity as CDM project activity, hence pre-feasibility assessment is not required.

3.7 Monitoring Requirements and Sustainability Monitoring Plan The Gold Standard requires monitoring the impact of the project on sustainable development. It has been verified that this project contributes to sustainable development and consequently is eligible for the issuance of Gold Standard premium quality labels or Gold Standard CERs. Project Proponents has identified eight non-neutral Sustainable Development Indicator parameters that can be used to properly monitor. All 8 non-neutral indicators mentioned in the Sustainability matrix that will be monitored are Air Quality, Other pollutants, Quality of employment, Livelihood of the poor, Access to affordable and clean energy, Human and Institutional capacity, Balance of payments and Investments and Qualitative employments and Income generation. The means used to monitor the indicators are appropriate to the size of the project. The monitoring approach selected is as follows. While the project owner is Bagepalli Coolie Sangha (BCS), project implementation, operation and maintenance is the responsibility of each coolie sangha unit (CSU). The monitoring of the bio digesters will be done by the balakendra teacher / village health worker on a daily basis and the data logged in a log book. The organization has biogas masons and supervisors who will be responsible for plant construction, supervision and maintenance. Biogas field workers and volunteers will monitor the construction and operation of the units in each village. All complaints and maintenance needs shall also be dealt with by Bagepalli coolie sangha staff. Procedures for performance reviews, internal auditing, corrective actions etc have also been addressed and rest with Bagepalli coolie sangha. Proponents would monitor these parameters over the crediting period and on a recurring basis to measure the impact of the Gold Standard project activities on the identified Sustainable Development Indicators.

Project Proponents has submitted their Sustainability Monitoring Plans describing how and with what frequency the monitored parameters and associated indicators will be monitored (quantitative and/or qualitative basis). In the monitoring plan the current status of the

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parameters is mentioned along with the future status and the way it would be monitored. The monitoring of Sustainable Development Indicators shall be verified for each verification period, as well as during each mandatory Verification site-visit. PP has stated that all mitigation measures put in place to prevent violation or the risk of violating a safeguarding principle of the ‘Do No Harm’ Assessment or to ‘neutralize’ a Sustainable Development Indicator shall be monitored. Project Proponent states that the stratified sample survey will be done on a statistically significant sample size. Questionnaires will be designed, field tested and implemented to collect information.

3.8 Environmental impacts The project activity does not fall under the purview of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, 2006. Hence, it is not required by the host party. /22/

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4 VALIDATION OPINION It is DNV’s opinion that the project activity “Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli coolie sangha project in India” in India, as described in the PDD version 06 dated 27 August 2009 /1/ and the Gold Standard Passport version 02 dated 17 June 2011,/3/ meets all Gold standard criteria for CDM project activities. The project activity is eligible under the Gold Standard activities (ecologically sound biomass, biogas and liquid bio-fuels). In DNV’s opinion, the sustainable development criteria identification process and the subsequent results are in full compliance with the Gold Standard criteria.

Hence DNV requests the registration of the project as a Gold Standard CDM project activity.

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APPENDIX A

CORRECTIVE ACTION REQUESTS, CLARIFICATION REQUESTS AND FORWARD ACTION REQUESTS

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Corrective action requests

CAR ID Corrective action request Response by Project Participants DNV’s assessment of response by Project Participants

CAR 1 PP has chosen Soil conditions as also one of the indicators and the chosen parameter under this indicator is stated as comparison of NPK content of soil treated with slurry and dung. (GS Passport; Sec F.2. Sustainable Development matrix) The comparison of NPK would require regular laboratory testing and evaluation. The PP needs to demonstrate how this concern would be addressed by them and what measures have been adopted by them for continual monitoring of soil’s NPK estimation. The PP has also chosen Water quality and quantity as another indicator. But it was observed during site inspection that water is required for dung substrate preparation for the biogas plant. Thus there will be no net impact on the water quantity. Proper justification is to be provided.

In view of the fact that the status of NPK in soil is influenced by many factors including application of slurry or dung, the laboratory tests and evaluation may not prove the impact on the chosen parameter. Thus the parameter has been excluded from the sustainability assessment. Due to absence of soot on vessels, there is reduction in water use for washing vessels. But in the project scenario, dung substrate prepared for the biogas plant requires water. Thus there is no net impact on the water quantity. Therefore the water quantity and quality sustainable assessment is not considered for the project activity.

DNV has assessed the revised Gold Standard Passport which considers these corrective action requests and has excluded in the Passport. Hence the clarification provided has been reviewed and accepted. CAR is closed.

Clarification requests

CAR ID Corrective action request Response by Project Participants DNV’s assessment of response by Project Participants

CL 1 No CL has been raised

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Forward action requests from previous verification

FAR ID Forward action request Summary of how FAR has been addressed in this reporting period

Assessment of how FAR has been addressed

FAR 1 No FAR was raised

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APPENDIX B

CURRICULA VITAE OF THE VALIDATION TEAM MEMBERS

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Astakala Vidyacharan, Auditor, DNV Hyderabad, India. He is a chemical engineer and prior to joining DNV in 2005, has had 11 years of direct work experience in various chemical industries. His work experience covers 4 years in project implementations in pesticide and fine chemical industries , including environment management activities; 7 years in process operations of pesticide, natural products and fine chemical industries. He has received extensive training in the CDM validation and verification process. He is an appointed validator for the CDM validation and verification program of DNV and has performed validation of several CDM projects. He is also a trained auditor for GHG accounting standards and involved audit of Corporate GHG accounting. He is a qualified ISO9001, ISO 14001 Lead auditor and OHSAS 18001 auditor who has performed several audits for various industrial sectors under these management systems. His qualification, industrial experience and experience in CDM facilitate him to assess renewable energy based on Hydro and Biomass, Energy Efficiency sectors, in particular to sufficient degree.

Kakaraparthi Venkata Raman holds a bachelor degree (B.Tech) in Chemical Engineering and a Diploma in Management. He has an overall experience of 18 years in the Chemical Process Industry - Fertilisers and Chemicals industry (FACT). His main areas of work include a) Technical Services (for Ammonia, Urea, Co-generation thermal power plants (captive), and complex fertilizers plants)- 10 years b) Erection, commissioning and hands-on operation of state of art HTAS Ammonia plant - 4 years c) Management and operation of Sulphuric acid plant as Plant Manager- 2 years and d) two years in management Information System operation and assisting of top management in planning of operations..

While in FACT he has completed the ISO14001 EMS LA course and also involved in implementation of Environmental Management Systems and in conducting internal audits.Experience prior to joining Fertilizer industry includes six months experimental work on charcoal manufacture in Karnataka Regional Engineering College. He has experience of around 5 years in validation and verification of numerous CDM projects. His qualification, industrial experience and experience in CDM demonstrate him sufficient sectoral competence in areas of (a) 1.1 Thermal energy generation from fossil fuels and Biomass as well as thermal electricity from solar (b) 1.2 Energy Generation from renewable energy sources (c) 5.1/4.13/11.1/12.1 Chemical Processes Industries and (d) 13.1 Waste handling and disposal.At present he is Technical Manager, South Asia, DNV, India.

Shilpa Swarnim, GHG Auditor under Training, hold masters degree in Biotechnology from Bangalore University. She has more than 5 years work experience into Research and Academics. Her topic of research centers around issues related to Forestry, Environment, Climate change impact on forest ecosystems, studying the climate impact modeling for future predictions of climatic and vegetation dynamics.

Felipe Antunes holds a Master’s Degree in Production Engineering (Quality) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Management and Industrial Waste Management and Treatment. Possesses an International experience of more than 10 years in the field of quality and environmental auditing, working two years as the responsible of the QMS of Rede Metrológica RS and since 1999 as a QMS and EMS auditor in DNV.

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He has experience of more than 3 years in validation and verification of numerous CDM projects in DNV, both in South America & abroad. He has also been actively involved in Management System Audits such as ISO 9001, ISO 140001 and OHSAS 18001 standards in various industrial sectors for more than 10 years in DNV.

His qualification and experience in CDM demonstrate him sufficient sectoral competence in energy generation from renewable energy sources, waste handling and disposal, and animal waste management.

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gold standard validation report

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