Existing systems and structures are changed to balance power, address past harms, and create systems to prevent those harms from recurring. 

Justice is achieved when all people have access to the same freedoms (freedom from poor air and water quality) and processes (planning and management) without additional support or accommodations because the systemic barriers impeding justice have been removed. 

This may be achieved by procedural justice (requiring fairness in the decision-making); distributive justice (equitably sharing resources, risks, and benefits); restorative justice (repairing previous harms); and transformative justice (changing the systems and structures that enabled those harms).

Accountability invites examination. This means both maintaining open agendas and decision-making processes,and prioritizing openness when things go wrong. In practice, accountability means acting on criticisms, owning mistakes, and sharing the power over an intervention’s purpose and scope.

Accountability only works if someone is clearly responsible. For each part of this framework, there must be a clearly named actor who has the authority, resources, and systems in place to follow through, including fixing things if they go wrong. Commitments should be made public and binding, and it should always be clear who is accountable for what.

Net negativity means that a carbon removal approach removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it emits across its full lifecycle. Here, full lifecycle refers to the complete chain of activities and emissions from initiation through the end of the storage period, including ongoing management and monitoring where needed to maintain stored carbon.

True net negativity reflects both the physical outcome — a measurable drawdown of CO2 — and the confidence that this result holds up after counting every stage of the process, from energy and materials to transport and long-term storage. Without it, carbon removal claims have no credible basis.

Inclusion means authentically involving traditionally excluded people and groups in processes, activities, and decision-making in ways that share power. Truly inclusive work bridges the divide between community and intervention governance through efforts like community-driven planning and participatory action research. It must go beyond public comments, fact sheets, and surveys.

In carbon removal, climate additionality is the primary test of atmospheric integrity – proof that an intervention genuinely changes CO2 levels beyond what would have occurred under a well-defined baseline scenario that reflects realistic estimates or inferences of carbon fluxes in the absence of the intervention. For interventions that involve crediting, establishing additionality prevents over-crediting and ensures that every ton claimed reflects a genuine climate benefit.

Other forms of additionality help explain how climate benefit becomes possible. Financial additionality asks whether an intervention would have occurred without carbon finance. Regulatory additionality asks whether it goes beyond existing legal requirements. Technological additionality asks whether innovation is expanding what’s achievable. Social additionality highlights the human and institutional shifts that make climate outcomes lasting and just. Taken together, these lenses provide a fuller picture of integrity.

Enforcement means actors comply with laws, policies, directives, and missions while prioritizing and minimizing harms to vulnerable and disadvantaged people. Commitments are not only made but upheld through clear consequences for noncompliance, transparent oversight, and accessible avenues for remedy. In practice, enforcement includes regulations, polluter-pays models, legal aid, and capacity-building partnerships.

Parties exchange a robust accounting of all information essential to equitable and informed decision-making. Transparency applies both to how people are engaged and to how information and data are shared. It means that information is not only disclosed but made understandable and accessible to everyone affected. Transparency allows all parties to see how decisions are made, who is responsible, and what impacts occur.

Equity addresses and alleviates existing unfair treatment and outcomes. Equity is achieved when a person’s life conditions (locally unwanted land use proximity, poor air quality, incarceration) are not predicted by their characteristics (e.g. race, ethnicity, sex, and gender). 

Work centering equity acknowledges that some people and groups require more support than others, and creates conditions that close those inequitable gaps without relying on continued external assistance.