Commission’s carbon farming ambition just buries the problem, stakeholders warn

(EurActiv, 16 Dec 2021) The European Commission’s communication on sustainable carbon cycles promising a new source of revenue for farmers received a lukewarm response from the farming sector on Wednesday (15 December) while NGOs blasted it for letting real polluters off the hook.

In a bid to increase removals of carbon from the atmosphere, the long-awaited communication sets out actions to support carbon farming and upscale the business model to better reward land managers for carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection.

There is currently no targeted policy tool to significantly incentivise carbon removals and the protection of carbon stocks.

However, this has not stopped corporations and some private citizens from buying land-based carbon removals in voluntary carbon markets to compensate for their residual climate footprint.

To address this, the Commission aims to propose an EU regulatory framework for the certification of carbon removals by the end of 2022.

This way, the communication outlines that carbon farming initiatives should contribute 42Mt of CO2 storage to Europe’s natural carbon sinks by 2030, making agriculture a key strategic sector for achieving the EU’s carbon-neutral goals.

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EurActiv, 16 Dec 2021: Commission’s carbon farming ambition just buries the problem, stakeholders warn