2.1 - Emissions accounted for in a Bilan Carbone®

Induced, avoided or sequestered emissions?

Source: Freepik

The Bilan Carbone® quantifies and enables action on emissions induced by a organization, whatever it may be, but also by a given event or by a specific project.

🔎 The Bilan Carbone® method is aligned with theopinion of ADEME on carbon neutrality, which advises against targeting an arithmetic carbon neutrality at the scale of an organisation, and instead to prioritise decarbonisation levers within the organisation’s boundary (induced emissions).

🔎 The Bilan Carbone® method is aligned with the Net Zero Initiative framework to organise an organisation’s action according to 3 pillars: induced emissions (pillar A), avoided emissions (pillar B), and sequestered (or negative) emissions (pillar C). The Net Zero Initiative offers organisations a way to describe and organise their climate action in order to maximise their contribution to global carbon neutrality.

The Bilan Carbone® quantifies and acts on induced emissions (pillar A). It is entirely coherent and relevant to quantify pillars B and C for better steering of an organisation’s climate strategy.

The three pillars, A/ Reduce your emissions; B/ Help others to reduce; C/ Develop carbon sinks, must all be pursued simultaneously. They are strictly non-combinable with one another: neither additive nor subtractive.

Induced emissions (Pillar A)

To contribute to the overall reduction of emissions, an organisation must reduce its own direct and indirect emissions (pillar A) to the levels required by decarbonisation scenarios compatible with the Paris Agreement.

Except in exceptional cases, pillar A “reduction of the organisation's emissions” is prioritised over the other two pillars B and C, due to its role in the organisation's dependence on a system based on fossil fuels, and its influence on the risks and opportunities that the organisation will need to integrate into its strategy.

The Bilan Carbone® quantifies and acts on pillar A.

Avoided emissions (Pillar B)

To contribute to the overall reduction of emissions, an organisation must reduce the emissions of others (pillar B). It then assesses and increases its contributions to third parties' decarbonisation:

• Either through its distributed or sold products and services which substitute a more carbon-intensive solution for end customers

• Either as a result of financing emission reduction projects outside its value chain (purchases of certified emission reductions, direct equity stakes in low-carbon projects, low-carbon energy contracts under certain conditions, etc.)

An organisation can determine the GHG emissions avoided by an activity. The organisation must not deduct these avoided emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.

⏳[WIP] The Bilan Carbone® methodology does not address avoided emissions. It is recommended to rely on the guide to calculating avoided emissions (pillar B). A future update of the Bilan Carbone® method is scheduled for 2025 to provide guidelines on the quantification of avoided emissions.

Sequestered emissions, or negative emissions (Pillar C)

To contribute to the global increase of carbon sequestration, the organisation must preserve and increase carbon sinks within or outside its value chain (pillar C). It assesses its contributions to the preservation and increase of global natural and technological carbon sinks:

• Either in its value chain, by developing its own carbon sinks (direct absorptions) or those upstream (in its supply chain) and downstream (within customers or end-users)

• Or outside its value chain, through its financing of sequestration projects (purchases of certified carbon sequestration, direct equity stakes in projects, etc.)

An organisation can determine GHG sinks and reservoirs that capture and concentrate GHGs to prevent their release into the atmosphere (forest growth, soil preservation, etc.). The organisation must not deduct these sequestered or negative emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.

⏳[WIP] The Bilan Carbone® methodology does not address sequestered emissions. It is recommended to rely on the guide to building a carbon sequestration strategy (pillar C). A future update of the Bilan Carbone® method is scheduled for 2025 to provide guidelines on the quantification of avoided emissions.

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Do you have a question about understanding? Consult the FAQ. The method is living and therefore likely to evolve (clarifications, additions): find the track of changes here.