A mandate to achieve climate neutrality

The relevance of carbon management and removals is growing as a component of Europe's strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, alongside bioeconomy and clean energy. While a coherent climate policy must primarily focus on reducing emissions, identifying mechanisms for building up carbon in soils and forests might significantly contribute to removing greenhouse gases that are currently polluting the Earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, carbon farming is strategically positioned at the intersection of climate and agricultural policies, making it stand out as a model for promoting sustainable agricultural systems that foster healthy soils and healthy food.

“Carbon farming is decisive not only in the fight against climate change, but also for the adaptation to climate change – incorporating carbon is the best way to arm our soils against extreme climatic hazards” - Edouard Lanckriet

The successful implementation of carbon farming and its scaling up across Europe re- quire support to farmers, land managers and practitioners. However, the diversity and complexity of the methodological bases behind each public or private certification scheme, along with costly and complex Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) frameworks and limited farmer advisory services, among other factors, have created barriers for them to leverage sufficient know-how and capital to transition to carbon farming.

As it was pointed out by Edouard Lanckriet (Head of Low Carbon Agriculture Division at Agrosolutions) during the first European Carbon Farming Summit held in Valencia in March 2024, one of the political objectives of carbon farming is to channel voluntary carbon markets to finance the low-carbon transition of agriculture. This is decisive in the fight against climate change, but also one of the political objectives of carbon farming is to channel voluntary carbon markets to finance the low-carbon transition of agriculture. This is decisive in the fight against climate change, but also that there is a need to develop appropriate approaches to measure carbon within the agricultural system, going beyond permanent carbon stocks as the sole unit of measurement.

Download the magazine Voices from the First European Carbon Farming Summit prepared by Project Credible’s coordinator SAE INNOVA to learn more about the outcomes of the Summit or read the following articles: