Avoided
04.10.2025
On October 4, 2025, Josep Piñol formalized the avoidance of his monumental work by signing a certificate acquired by a private collector. The cancellation, carried out at the Museu Tàpies in Barcelona, gave rise to a piece that culminates in its own avoidance. During the performative action, Piñol signed before a notary his definitive renunciation of materializing the work, which had been planned for Belém (Brazil), site of the upcoming COP30 and a focal point of the climate debate. In doing so, the cancellation was sealed. By halting the project planned for the Amazon, he avoided the emission of 57,765 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e), registered as certified carbon credits with an estimated value of 1.6 million euros. From that total, the artist gifted the buyer with only one accredited tonne as a gesture tied to the operation, while expressly renouncing any right of use, transfer, or exploitation over the remainder, choosing to “free” them so they could not become objects of speculation or be used in corporate sustainability reports.
The operation was curated by Roberta Bosco and presented within the cycle “Contrariar abismos. Poéticas de escala” at the Museu Habitat, directed by Manuel J. Borja-Villel. With this action, the artist reproduces and subverts the dynamics of the voluntary carbon credit market, particularly the so-called avoided emissions: estimates of emissions that would have been released into the atmosphere but ultimately were not. This type of credit, often used as a mechanism for greenwashing, has been questioned for failing to translate into real climate reductions.
The voluntary carbon market
With the aim of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, the international community created a market to put a price on carbon and steer the transition toward less polluting activities. Thus the carbon credit was born (equivalent to 1 tonne of CO₂e): what is traded is not the tonne itself, but the right to emit it. The sector grew to around 900 billion euros in 2023.
In the European Union there is a regulated market under the cap-and-trade model. Brussels sets an annual emissions cap and companies must hold allowances in line with what they expect to emit. Outside the regulated sphere operates the voluntary market: companies around the world buy and sell credits validated by independent certification entities to bolster their sustainability strategies. It is an expanding financial space that, while attracting corporate investment, is also the subject of public debate due to repeated cases of malpractice.
Within this market, the asset of avoided emissions stands out. It works as follows: a company documents a viable project that would have generated a specific amount of CO₂ and, by not executing it (or by replacing it with a lower-footprint option) registers as a credit the difference between the potential and the actual emission. That difference acquires market value: the seller receives income for the CO₂ not released, and the buyer can reflect those avoided tonnes in their annual report.
A work consummated in its avoidance
The project in the Amazon had reached an advanced stage of development and had closed two funding rounds totaling 18.4 million euros, backed by a Canadian company and a British company. Executive plans, the final timeline, and communication materials had also been delivered, including models and 3D visualizations of the land slated for acquisition.
The macro-project was presented as a large direct air capture (DAC) plant in the Amazon basin, conceived as a work of artistic-climatic mitigation and sold as a green promise. The proposal was accompanied by a promotional video whose language draws on major greenwashing campaigns: an audiovisual piece that reproduces the semantics of corporate marketing and, under the slogan “an artwork to help the world breathe better,” immerses the viewer in a rendered video with an original soundtrack composed by Lluís Martínez. The installation was crowned by one hundred bronze figures in business attire, standing atop coffins converted into CO₂ capture modules. With no recognisable faces, these silhouettes alluded to a structural and interchangeable power: they represent the concentration of real power over the climate in barely a hundred economic and political decision-makers.
In Barcelona, however, the process was halted by the artist’s decision. The carbon-footprint calculation was validated through the certifying entity Art Carbon Avoidance S.L., created in parallel to the work and accredited under the ACA standard. To faithfully reproduce the functioning of the emissions market, this specific methodological standard for the cultural sector was created, capable of issuing Cultural Degrowth Credits (CDC), thus exceeding the symbolic action and obtaining credits with full methodological and operational validity on the market. This process involved more than 40 professionals from various fields (engineers, lawyers, environmental consultants, etc.) and was carried out as follows:
Incorporate a limited liability company named Art Carbon Avoidance, S.L.
From this company, develop a carbon-credit certification standard with the help of a specialized environmental consultancy. Apply international standards for verifying avoided emissions to the specificity of artistic and cultural work. Thus the ACA standard was born, the legal basis for Cultural Degrowth Credits.
Submit the ACA standard to an independent audit, which reviewed and confirmed the validity of its methodology.
Conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the work planned in the Amazon. An LCA is a study methodology that quantifies the environmental impacts of a product, service, or project from “cradle to grave,” including raw materials, production, use, and end of life. This calculation makes it possible to state the figure that values the impact of its construction versus its cancellation. These calculations must be backed by budgets, material-cost calculations, travel, production costs, etc. The LCA found that building the DAC plant would generate a total of 57,765 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e).
A new independent auditor must review the validity of the documents and the Life Cycle Assessment. In addition, the auditor requests sufficient evidence to verify the project’s viability: letters of investment commitment, preliminary contracts, pro forma invoices, professional correspondence, and letters of interest.
Once the LCA had been completed and the audit finished, a notarial deed was signed committing not to build the sculptural macro-plant, which was thereby definitively avoided. This allowed the issuance of a total of 57,765 Cultural Degrowth Credits, as compensation for the emissions avoided by not building the plant. These CDCs have an estimated market value of 1.6 million euros, equivalent to a unit price of 27.70 euros per tCO₂e.
At the Museu Tàpies, Piñol committed before a notary to renounce any right of use, transfer, or exploitation of the credits, with the exception of one, which he gifted to the buyer of the Certificate of Avoidance.
Climate indulgence
As if it were a contemporary papal bull, Piñol put up for sale the exemption of a sin: a gesture that brings into the realm of art the same logic of indulgence that runs through climate markets. The piece enters into dialogue with a tradition of conceptual gestures in which absence, cancellation, or emptiness became artistic matter, but it sets a precedent by situating avoidance as a contractual gesture and, at the same time, as a climate metric.
On the eve of COP30 in Belém, Piñol’s avoided work was presented as a metaphor for the contemporary paradox: a certified non-materialization in which inaction becomes a solution, renunciation a strategy, and emptiness a commitment.
