Press release: The Commission Proposes a Carbon Removal Certification
The legislative proposal on certification of carbon removals published today by the European Commission is an important step towards achieving the Green Deal's climate targets. Delivering on the revised LULUCF target of 310 MtCO2eq net removals by 2030, and to achieve climate neutrality thereafter will require strong financial incentives for land managers, with the CAP budget being insufficient on its own. The European Commission has proposed a carbon removal framework that will enable harmonised monitoring and qualitative certification of carbon removals, giving a strong impetus to their valuation, which in turn will motivate land managers to commit to climate targets.
Read the Press release here
Exploring the Future of Carbon Farming Implementation Through Europe, Insights of ELO and Case Study From Belgium
Following the publication of the Commission "fit for 55" package, the ELO released a Carbon Farming leadership paper to challenge the ambitious Carbon Credits policy implementation for Forestry, Agriculture and Land Use across the EU.
Early September 2021, the ELO reunited then with stakeholders around the topic of Carbon Farming to present this publication and debate on the matter. The selected audience of private and public institutions pursued on this day with a policy discussion on how to seize the opportunity and make Carbon Farming a reality in the European market. Then, to illustrate future perspectives, the ELO introduced to its guests the concrete solutions offered by the partnership of the two agencies Agriland and Indigo for the very first Carbon Farming project in Belgium.
Read the Leadership Paper of Marc Rosiers and Anna de Boeck here
Read the Press Release here
Carbon farming encapsulates countless topics close to ELO including climate change, biodiversity, the circular economy, land management and forestry, making it a critical issue to cover. As the EU looks to reach their 2030 and 2050 target goals of reducing carbon emissions, carbon farming becomes an increasingly more relevant practice to support and promote. Turning carbon farming into a reliable, practical, sustainable and economically viable activity will require the alignment of various stakeholders including investors, farmers, scientists, NGO’s and policymakers, creating an open dialogue to discuss the strengths, weaknesses and limitations to both carbon farming practices and policy.
Towards the end of 2020, ELO organised a virtual roundtable with various stakeholders from the public and private sector in partnership with Indigo Agriculture. ELO members had the opportunity to discuss this carbon certification scheme at great lengths with Artur RUNGE-METZGER, Director of Climate Strategy, Governance and Emissions from non-trading sectors of the European Commission. Working closely with the EU institutions, ELO attended the roundtable on ‘Carbon Farming Schemes in Europe’ hosted by the European Commission.
Moving forward into next year, ELO wishes to continue supporting and raising the profile of carbon farming and any initiatives that reward farmers for carbon sequestration. Factors that are of importance to ELO include a carbon credit certification system that fairly rewards farmers for their efforts sequestering carbon and allows for the cross-border trade of carbon credits. This means that policies such as the CAP and the ETS must take carbon farming into account and ELO is hopeful that progress will be made in the years to come. ELO welcomes the support of stakeholders across all sectors to work towards making carbon farming a mainstream initiative.
