This second edition of the Guidance on Avoided Emissions is a comprehensive update empowering businesses, investors, and policymakers to assess, validate, and communicate the climate impact of their solutions and portfolios—beyond their direct emissions footprint.
Avoided emissions (AE) represent the greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions that occur when comparing a low-carbon solution to a reference scenario without that solution in place. This guidance provides a robust, science-aligned methodology to quantify and disclose AE, enabling companies and investors to scale climate solutions with integrity and transparency.
What’s New in Version 2.0?
- Expanded methodology: A more comprehensive approach for assessing AE, including guidance on data, reference scenario definition, contribution validation, and optional steps for allocation and consolidation.
- Eligibility gates: Clearer and more inclusive criteria to ensure climate credibility, science alignment, and legitimate impact.
- Reporting and communication: Standardized templates and best practices to support transparent disclosure, impact validation, and third-party review.
- Implementation tools: Sector-specific guidance, technical templates, and a growing use case repository in an open access online hub
- Alignment with global frameworks: Built on the latest climate science and harmonized with initiatives and standards like GHG P, IPCC, PCAF, and ISO.
Who Is This For?
This guidance is designed for:
- Businesses: To assess and report the decarbonization impact of their products and services.
- Investors: To evaluate climate-aligned opportunities and steer capital toward high-impact solutions.
- Policymakers: To inform innovation and transformative policy mechanisms that accelerate decarbonization.
- Standard setters and NGOs: To support methodological convergence and credibility in intervention-based impact assessment and disclosure.
Why It Matters
Avoided emissions are a critical lever for accelerated, system-wide decarbonization. By applying this guidance, companies can:
- Demonstrate the climate impact of your solutions.
- Make informed decisions that maximize decarbonization potential.
- Avoid greenwashing through credible, transparent, and conservative assessments and disclosure.
- Strengthen your role as solution providers in global climate challenges and the Net Zero transition.
Download the Guidance on Avoided Emissions v2.0