Permanence
In climate mitigation, permanence is the longevity of carbon kept out of the atmosphere by a storage pool or removal activity. It asks whether stored carbon remains sequestered for the period claimed and how reversal risks are addressed. Fire, disease, land-use change, storage leakage, or project failure can return carbon to the atmosphere.
In simple terms
Carbon sequestration is not automatically permanent. A biological pool can lose carbon through wildfire, harvesting, pests, drought, or land conversion; geological storage can face leakage risk. A release after a credited removal is a reversal. Carbon standards address non-permanence through combinations of risk assessment, monitoring, buffers or pooled reserves, insurance, replacement obligations, and rules for avoidable and unavoidable reversals. The relevant duration and remedy are defined by the governing mechanism. Permanence therefore describes durability of storage, not whether the original removal calculation was accurate or additional.
Why it matters
A tonne removed and released soon afterward does not provide the same climate outcome as a tonne stored for a much longer period. If reversal risk is ignored, Carbon credit claims and net-emissions calculations can overstate durable mitigation. Buyers and decision-makers need the storage type, credited duration, monitoring commitment, reversal provisions, and responsible party rather than the word permanent alone.
Example
A forest-removal project assesses fire and land-tenure risks, monitors carbon stocks, contributes credits to a pooled buffer, and reports a wildfire that releases stored carbon. The mechanism cancels buffer units or requires replacement under its rules. Those measures address permanence risk; they do not guarantee that no reversal can ever occur.
How it differs
Carbon sequestration
Carbon sequestration is the process of removing and storing carbon; permanence concerns how long that stored carbon remains out of the atmosphere and how any reversal is managed.
Carbon credit
A carbon credit is a tradable unit issued under a program; permanence is one quality consideration for credits based on carbon storage or removals that may later reverse.
References
Current status
- As of
- Issuer
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Jurisdiction
- Paris Agreement Article 6.4 mechanism
- Instrument or version
- A6.4-STAN-METH-007
- Status
- The cited Article 6.4 standard provides the mechanism rules for addressing non-permanence and reversals available on 2026-08-13.
Applicability: Monitoring periods, reversal-risk assessment, remediation, buffers, insurance, and other durability requirements depend on the applicable carbon-crediting mechanism or methodology; Article 6.4 rules should not be assumed to govern every market.