08Carbon credits glossary

Terms worth slowing down for.

Additionality

The question of whether a credited outcome would have happened without the incentive from carbon-credit revenue.

Article 6

A part of the Paris Agreement covering different forms of international cooperation, including accounting and reporting guidance for certain transferred mitigation outcomes.

Baseline

A counterfactual reference used to estimate what would occur without a proposed activity.

Carbon credit

A defined unit associated with a quantified greenhouse-gas outcome under a relevant program or mechanism.

Carbon offset

A term commonly used for the use of a credit in relation to emissions from another activity.

Double counting

A risk that an emissions outcome is issued, used, or claimed more than once.

Leakage

The risk that a change associated with an activity shifts emissions outside the assessed boundary rather than preventing them overall.

Methodology

The defined rules, assumptions, data, and calculation approach used to quantify an outcome under a program.

Permanence

The question of how long an intended emissions outcome is expected to endure and how reversals are addressed.

Retirement

A recorded status indicating that a unit is no longer available for a subsequent transfer or stated use in the relevant system.

Registry

A system used to identify, issue, track, transfer, and retire units under a relevant program.

Scope 1, 2, and 3

Common organizational inventory categories for direct emissions, purchased energy, and value-chain emissions; they are not carbon-credit quality labels.

Safeguards

Policies, procedures, and evidence intended to address social, environmental, rights, or governance risks associated with an activity.

Vintage

The period or date associated with the emissions outcome represented by an issued unit; it is context, not a standalone quality conclusion.