The climate benefit happens in the field.
The credit is the verified, traceable representation of that result. Digitization can improve transfer and auditability; it cannot make weak evidence strong.
Physical permanence is necessary. Evidentiary integrity is earned.
A defensible methane-avoidance claim must connect engineering, measurement, governance, and remedy. A registry entry cannot repair a weak baseline. A good plug cannot cure double counting.
Financial additionality
Show that the closure depends on climate finance and is not already required, funded, or economically inevitable.
Conservative baseline
Use repeated direct measurement, quantified uncertainty, and the lowest defensible forward-emissions case.
Source attribution
Distinguish wellbore methane from tanks, pneumatics, nearby wells, soil pathways, and unrelated biogenic sources.
Independent verification
Separate project development, field execution, quantification, and assurance so no single party marks its own work.
Permanence controls
Pair engineered barriers with post-plug testing, scheduled surveillance, reserves, and a defined correction protocol.
Digital traceability
Bind every result to a well, location, instrument, timestamp, raw file, method version, reviewer, and claim status.
Integrity separates a real tonne from a paper one.
Additional. Independently verified. Permanently closed. The claim must carry all three.
In the U.S. Department of the Interior FY 2023 report, post-plug measurements were reported for 328 of 497 wells with measured pre-plug emissions. That measured subset showed greater than 99.999% effectiveness.4
This is evidence that plugging can work exceptionally well—not proof that every well, plugging design, baseline, or project claim will perform equally.
Each intervention must establish its own counterfactual, execution quality, post-plug result, and monitoring record.
Say only what the evidence can carry.
Avoidance, not removal. The intervention stops a future methane flow; it does not extract greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.
Well-specific, not average. Category-wide emission factors cannot substitute for direct project measurement where measurement is feasible.
Ex post evidence, not engineering confidence alone. Plugging documentation proves work occurred; post-plug measurement proves what happened to methane.
Monitored, not presumed permanent. Long-lived claims require surveillance, transparent exceptions, and a funded response when performance changes.
Language advances only when evidence does.
“Premium verified credit” is not a starting description. Each stage supports only the claim shown below.
A defensible tonne travels with its evidence.
Institutional confidence depends on a complete record—not a registry badge in isolation.
Methodology & baseline
Rules, raw measurements, uncertainty, and the conservative counterfactual.
Additionality
Evidence that climate finance changes the timing or feasibility of closure.
Verification
Independent review conducted outside the commercial and field entities.
Title & counting
Rights, ownership, registry status, serial numbers, and anti-double-counting controls.
Protection
Trust reserve, monitoring triggers, correction procedures, and available risk transfer.
Claim evidence
Transfer records, retirement certificate, approved language, and reporting package.
Registry transfer · Credit serial numbers · Retirement certificate · Approved claims package
High-integrity supply is finite. Buyer scrutiny is rising.
Long-term access is a supply strategy—not simply a spot transaction.
How a credit purchase moves from mandate to proof.
A guided account of sourcing, diligence, contracting, settlement, retirement, and the final reporting package.
The atmosphere responds to what stops.
Find the source. Close the pathway.
Preserve the evidence. Return the land.