The January 2026 npj Climate Action paper that anchors the Trellison carbon capture portfolio. Published thesis for radical transparency on CDR data and dollar-per-ton costs — and a published design specification for what proof packs must deliver.
Reinhard, C. T., & Planavsky, N. J. (2026). The importance of radical transparency for responsible carbon dioxide removal. npj Climate Action (Nature Portfolio). DOI: s44168-025-00324-4
Published in January 2026, this paper is the clearest public statement yet of what a credible carbon-removal market has to produce to earn public trust. It does not prescribe a specific verification stack — it prescribes properties that any verification stack must exhibit. LedgerWell proof packs are engineered to exhibit exactly those properties. That is why Trellison anchors the carbon capture portfolio on this paper: every other researcher on our roster can be reached through a Trellison / LedgerWell conversation that starts with, "we built the instrument your peers argued for."
Carbon removal is now a scaled, commercialised category with multiple billion-dollar programmes and emerging regulatory frameworks. At that scale, two failure modes become dangerous:
The authors argue that both failure modes are mitigated by the same intervention: radical transparency. Specifically, open public disclosure of (a) the data behind CDR claims and (b) the data required to evaluate dollar-per-ton costs across pathways. This represents a cultural shift away from treating CDR methods, MRV data, and cost structures as intellectual property.
Compiled from the paper's abstract, related interviews, and the broader body of work by the same authors:
| Data element | Proof-pack schema field |
|---|---|
| Complete methodology description (CDR pathway + process) | methodology_attestation — signed, versioned, source-traceable |
| Energy consumption and source carbon intensity | energy_ledger — kWh / GJ by source, with grid-mix or supplier attestation |
| Material inputs (feedstocks, reagents, minerals) | material_ledger — mass, provenance, certified composition |
| Verifiable carbon sequestration and permanence data | sequestration_record — measured vs. modelled, with uncertainty band and reversibility risk |
| Environmental impacts (land, water, pollutants) | externality_ledger — positive and negative; nickel/chromium for basalt, runoff, water use |
| Full project cost decomposition (capex, opex, subsidies) | cost_decomposition — normalised dollar-per-ton view with subsidy disclosure |
| Co-benefits (soil, yield, biodiversity, community) | co_benefit_ledger — quantified where possible, narrative where not |
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