A cleaner portfolio is not yet a financing effect

Lower attributed portfolio emissions do not by themselves demonstrate lower emissions caused by investor action. This methods note separates accounting exposure, investee operations, new financing, and investor contribution using PCAF’s financed-emissions standard, GHG Protocol guidance, and Pástor and colleagues’ original equilibrium model. A fully fictional corporate-bond example shows how a valuation denominator can change reported attribution while stipulated physical emissions remain constant. The analysis also distinguishes secondary trading, additional finance, engagement activity, and causal evidence, and keeps avoided emissions separate from inventories. It offers no fund recommendation, investment-performance claim, or real-world saving. Its practical contribution is a due-diligence sequence connecting a reported improvement to its accounting drivers, proposed mechanism, counterfactual, and evidential limits.