Avoidance credit

Definition

An avoidance credit is a carbon credit representing greenhouse gas emissions that were prevented or reduced relative to a baseline scenario — for example avoided deforestation, cookstove distribution or methane capture — rather than physically removed from the atmosphere. The avoidance-versus-removal distinction has become central to claims integrity: the revised Oxford Principles (2024) direct companies toward removals for residual emissions on the path to net zero, and the EU's Carbon Removal Certification Framework certifies removals separately from reductions. Both ICVCM's Core Carbon Principles and VCMI's Claims Code require buyers to disclose credit types, because long-term neutrality claims resting on avoidance credits are increasingly challenged as weaker than those built on removals with durable storage.