Carbon farming certification to cover soil and wetland management

Euractiv
2024.02.22

Agricultural practices that store CO2 and those reducing emissions from soil are among the activities for which farmers might be remunerated for their contribution to combat climate change, according to a regulation agreed by the EU institutions.

The EU Council and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on Tuesday (20 February) on an EU-level certification framework for carbon removals. The system will be voluntary, and the regulation aims to set criteria to define a high standard for carbon removals from industrial and agricultural activities.

An EU ‘guaranteed’ certificate will cover the process of monitoring, reporting and verifying the authenticity of these removals.

As far as agriculture is concerned, the EU framework restricts the ‘carbon farming’ definition to some temporary activities. Among those are restoring forests and soil, wetland management, and maintaining seagrass meadows.

It will also include soil emission reduction activities, for example growing nitrogen-fixing crops, such as peas and beans, no-till and cover crops such as clover or alfalfa, and practices combined with reduced use of fertilizers and pesticides.

The agreement considers a potential inclusion of methane emissions reductions by 2026, mandating the Commission to study this option.

To be certified, activities included in the carbon farming definition must last at least five years.

Most of the practicalities of the framework, however, are not still written.

Once the regulation is formally adopted, it will be up to the Commission to propose certification methodologies for the different types of carbon removal activities.

The provisional agreement is yet to be rubberstamped by the member states in the Council and the European Parliament.

Read more here.

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