Per-tonne evidentiary disclosure is emerging as the next carbon-market design question
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Reuters carries market-moving carbon-market coverage across 150+ newsrooms. A Reuters story on per-tonne evidentiary architecture sets the frame for every other outlet.
Dear Editor,
In January 2026, two Earth scientists — Christopher Reinhard of Georgia Tech and Noah Planavsky of Yale — published a paper in npj Climate Action arguing that carbon dioxide removal requires what they called radical transparency: open data on every claim's methodology, open data on every claim's dollar-per-tonne cost, and an independent verification pathway for every tonne.
The paper has begun to shape the conversation among academic critics of the voluntary carbon market — Barbara Haya at UC Berkeley, Danny Cullenward, Thales West at VU Amsterdam — and among policy bodies preparing EU and US regulatory frameworks for CDR.
Trellison Institute has been building a reference implementation of the paper's argument. The instrument is a signed per-tonne record that binds methodology attestation, sensor data, cost decomposition, environmental-impact disclosure, and audit hooks. The instrument is called a proof pack.
The reason Reuters readers should take notice: this is a market-structure story. If per-tonne evidentiary architecture becomes standard — through corporate procurement demand, registry adoption, or regulatory prescription — carbon markets move from opaque to legible. That affects pricing, volume, and the viability of specific pathways.
We are writing to offer Reuters an off-the-record briefing on the instrument, the research community evaluating it, and the timeline by which the EU CRCF and US federal procurement are likely to require per-tonne evidentiary disclosure.
We recognise wire-service readers span many jurisdictions and use cases. We would be glad to tailor a briefing to the specific regional desk that wants it.
— Rob Stillwell
Director, Trellison Institute
[email protected]