Credible’s Focus Groups generate periodic outcomes, based on discussions within the project and invited experts and at the European Carbon Farming Summits. Summaries of these key messages, tensions, and opportunities for advancing carbon farming in the EU are shared here. You are invited to leave your opinion on the matters –your comments will inspire further discussions within the Focus Groups and will be available to the wider community.
Public consultations open until July 15th
Assessing the economic impact of the co-benefits of increasing Soil Organic Matter with carbon farming
Agronomic and societal benefits of Soil Organic Matter (SOM) are rarely quantified in economic terms. However, when these co-benefits are measured, the return on investment (ROI) of carbon farming increases, making it a key strategy to engage farmers in supporting agricultural decarbonization. This report assesses the current context and provides recommendations on how to improve farm profitability while enhancing soil health.
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How to avoid threats to food production and biodiversity and support positive synergies
The interplay between carbon removals, crop yield, and biodiversity is fundamental when assessing carbon farming projects, but there is no clear evidence of the nature of these relationships. In any case, there is a need to develop a holistic management plan, focusing on farm profitability and preventing the incorrect economic evaluation of regenerative agriculture as an extra cost. This report discusses key elements on this topic, considering farmers’ perspectives.
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Conceptualizing fit-for-region carbon farming for the EU Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation
Agricultural transformation requires technical innovation and systemic change, integrating both individual carbon farming practices and holistic agricultural systems. Moreover, there is an urgency to create clear, practical pathways and supportive policies to promote carbon farming on a broader scale and ensure sustainability and alignment with EU policies. This document summarises the expert conversation on how such an approach could be operationalised.
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Ensuring carbon farming delivers sustainability benefits
Carbon farming practices don’t just affect the climate –they may also impact other sustainability outcomes, including biodiversity, soil health, and water use and quality. The promotion of carbon farming poses an opportunity –and a risk– for meeting other sustainability objectives, alongside climate change mitigation. This report proposes how the CRCF Regulation can ensure carbon farming meets minimum sustainability requirements while incentivising co-benefits beyond them.
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From single farms to nations: is there an optimal scale for robust and viable schemes?
The tension between the need for an EU-level carbon certification framework and the consideration of local specificities must be adequately addressed to develop robust and viable schemes. This document draws on insights from experts involved in carbon credit certification and builds on the latest developments of the CRCF Regulation, providing recommendations to help mitigate potential negative effects of the decision to implement an EU-wide registry by 2028.
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An effective policy mix for scaling up carbon farming
The CRCF Regulation aims to deliver on environmental objectives while creating an attractive business model to pull private funds. However, policy environments are complex ecosystems, and special attention must be given to potential interactions, synergies, and tensions with other policy elements and frameworks. This document presents key elements for a conducive policy landscape to enable a transition in the land sector.
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Barriers and incentives for sharing input-data needed in carbon farming and MRV systems in Europe
An EU-coherent MRV system needs the development of agreed rules for data sharing among public and private sectors, together with open access tools and procedures that enable the standardisation and harmonisation of data. The document delves into these issues, providing a series of recommendations to overcome several technical, economic and legal challenges, and towards harmonisation.
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Proximal sensing in carbon farming
Proximal sensing offers frequent, non-invasive, and cost-effective monitoring of soil organic carbon. However, there is an urgent need for a common understanding of the techniques involved, and to leverage proximal sensing to create a more reliable, equitable, and scalable system for soil carbon monitoring. This document focuses on the benefits and challenges of proximal sensing in carbon farming, providing practical examples and recommendations on the path forward.
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Earth Observation (EO) for Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of Carbon Farming Earth (CF) - Uncertainty and Benchmarking
Earth Observation technologies are a key tool in carbon farming MRV, but their application faces challenges related to standardisation and cost-accuracy trade-offs, among others. Moreover, there is a need to ensure data integration and reliability to boost stakeholder trust. This report addresses the capabilities and limitations of satellite-derived data for carbon farming MRV, providing recommendations and exploring the establishment of an EU benchmarking platform.
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Unlocking data for MRV: Data sharing for effective carbon farming
Accurate MRV systems rely on high-quality soil carbon (meta)data and farm activity data at parcel level, which are crucial for calibrating, validating and running models. However, several key challenges emerge from both the public and private sectors regarding data sharing. This document aims to find pathways to build trust and foster data exchange, focusing on transparency, accountability, and mutual benefits, and provides concrete ideas to achieve these goals.
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