Arcusa & Lackner (2025): Carbon sequestration ought to be permanent on climate-relevant timescales
Stephanie H. Arcusa and Klaus S. Lackner, IN: Environmental Science & Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104223
Markets for durable carbon removal credits are expanding despite conflicting rules and standards. A major unresolved issue surrounds the permanence of sequestration and what it means. The authors draw from the principles of ‘intergenerational equity’ and the ‘polluter-pays’ to argue that sequestration ought to be permanent on climate-relevant timescales which geoscience has determined to be in excess of 10,000 years. This is far longer than the typical durability of carbon credits. In this perspective, the authors examine the implications of having to guarantee the permanence of carbon removal either by permanent sequestration or by a sequence of temporary storage.