On Wednesday 15 December, the Commission proposed a series of short and medium-term actions to support carbon storage in agricultural soils and better reward land managers for carbon sequestration.
By 2030, carbon farming initiatives should contribute to storing 42 Mt of CO2 in Europe’s natural carbon sinks, the Commission said. And by 2050, “each single tonne of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere will have to be neutralised by a tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere”.
At present, however, the annual amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere by ecosystems in Europe is on a declining trend and industrial carbon removal solutions are virtually non-existent.
The Commission is therefore putting forward several non-binding and legislative avenues to improve matters: firstly, it wants to rely on funding for farmers working in the field of storage via the Common Agricultural Policy. It will also promote access to advisory services.
The Commission intends as well to fund research and innovation in carbon storage under the Horizon Europe programme (€1 billion could support such actions).
It also proposes that a group of experts be set up to exchange best practices.
For industrial CO2 capture and storage, it proposes that by 2028, every tonne of CO2 captured, transported, used and stored by industries should be declared and accounted for according to its fossil, biogenic or atmospheric origin. At least 20% of the carbon used in chemicals and plastics should come from sustainable non-fossil sources by 2030 and 5 million tonnes of CO2 should be removed from the atmosphere each year and permanently stored by 2030.
The Commission also proposes a certification framework with standardised monitoring, reporting and verification methods to “minimise the risk of fraud and error”.
Each land manager should have access to verified emissions and removals data by 2028.
New EU rules on accounting and certification of carbon removals will arrive at the end of 2022.
This certification framework will also support the development of voluntary carbon markets, where private actors currently apply very heterogeneous benchmarks, says the Commission. This system, which puts companies wishing to reduce their emissions in touch with project developers, is currently perceived by some, such as Greenpeace, as a false good idea, as it does not allow emissions to be reduced at the source.
The Communication also aims to develop blue carbon initiatives, with projects under the “Restore our Ocean and Waters” project.
Link to the communication: https://bit.ly/3oWxIci
Link to ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’: https://bit.ly/3oYbx5H (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)