Irreversible Impact—Delivered, Verified, and Guaranteed

In our piece on True Credits, we defined a True Credit as both complete and irreversible. We’ve already explained what “complete” means. Here, we focus on “irreversible.”

Why irreversibility matters

Most carbon credits are speculative. They rely on promises to store carbon for decades or centuries—promises that may or may not hold. This applies whether carbon is stored in forests or deep underground. Recent examples of leakage from geological storage, demonstrate that even “permanent” solutions are not guaranteed.

In most industries, payment happens when goods are delivered. The carbon market, however, evolved differently: buying an issued credit only represents this promise of speculative impact in the future. The risk becomes clear when carbon is unintentionally released back into the atmosphere—a “reversal.”

To manage reversals, today’s market leans on tools like buffer pools: setting aside credits to cover losses if projects fail. But buffer pool allocations are decided by parties with conflicts of interest, and reporting reversals is the responsibility of the very developers who stand to lose. Carbon credit insurance has emerged as another solution, but with limited data, actuarial rigor remains uncertain. These approaches add cost and complexity while leaving the core issue unresolved.

The True Credit approach

We take a simpler path. Under the True Credit Framework, credits are issued only after impact has been fully delivered and verified.

– No speculative promises

– No risk of reversal

– Backward-looking claims only

– Pay-upon-delivery

Every True Credit represents real, measured, and verified impact—delivered through forestry contracts under Sky Harvest’s direct oversight. Our projects will continue to store more carbon in the future, but we will not issue credits for that today. We will issue those credits in the future— once verified and not before then.

A note on permanence

A fair question arises: how do we ensure permanence if credits are based only on past storage? The answer is simple but powerful—we bundle multiple tonnes of CO₂ into each credit. This is how the True Credit Framework guarantees 100% completeness and irreversibility together. For more, see our article on why True Credits are Complete.

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Whether you’re ready to purchase True Credits or just have a question, we’d love to hear from you.

General Inquiries

Email: info@skyharvest.com

Phone: +1 (919) 306-1883