The European Commission presented, on Wednesday 30 November, its proposal for a regulation establishing a voluntary framework for the certification of carbon removals in the European Union, be it through industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon farming or sustainable materials such as wood-based construction products.
“To reach climate neutrality we need to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we also need to remove carbon from the atmosphere”, said Frans Timmermans, the Commission’s Executive Vice-President in charge of the Green Deal.
The proposal sets out rules for third-party verification and certification of carbon removals as well as requirements defining the certification schemes that can be used to demonstrate compliance with the EU framework.
Compliance with various criteria
Under these rules, carbon removal activities will have to meet four criteria: quantification, additionality, long-term storage and sustainability.
The first emphasises that the net benefit of carbon removal must be accurately quantified to ensure that the carbon removal achieved through the carbon removal activity is greater than the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by the implementation of the activity throughout its life cycle.
The principle of additionality aims to ensure that removals are generated only by carbon removal activity that goes beyond standard practice and EU and Member State regulatory requirements and takes place through the incentive effect of certification.
To certify their removals, carbon removal activities will also need to ensure that the carbon removed from the atmosphere is stored for as long as possible. The risk of carbon release will need to be monitored and mitigated.
In addition, the certificates will have to have an expiry date depending on the risk of release specific to each type of carbon extraction. The proposed regulation thus distinguishes between technologies that ensure permanent carbon storage (and should not have an expiry date) and temporary carbon removals (such as carbon farming ).
Fourth criterion: carbon removal activities should have a neutral or positive impact on other environmental objectives such as biodiversity, climate change adaptation, water quality, zero pollution or the circular economy.
The Commission will therefore give priority to the development of appropriate certification methodologies for carbon harvesting activities that have significant co-benefits for biodiversity. At the same time, practices that have adverse effects on biodiversity should not be eligible for certification, the institution said, taking forest monocultures as an example.
Development of certification methods
On the basis of these criteria, the Commission will develop certification methods for the different types of carbon absorption activities - through delegated acts - with the support of an expert group.
It will also adopt implementing acts laying down harmonised rules on the modalities and procedures for certification and on the recognition of certification systems.
The certification framework will therefore only be fully operational once the Commission has adopted the first certification method and recognised the first certification scheme, i.e. around 2024-2025, according to the estimates of a European official.
The first meeting of the expert group is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.
Promoting CCS technologies and carbon farming
By improving the EU’s capacity to quantify, monitor and verify carbon removals, the Commission aims to stimulate innovative carbon removal technologies and farming methods to sustainably remove carbon from the atmosphere.
It says the proposal “will create new income opportunities for industries deploying carbon removal technologies or developing long-lasting carbon storage products, and for land managers engaging in innovative carbon farming practices”.
In particular, the certificates can be used to obtain funding under EU programmes such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the Innovation Fund or the State Aid regime.
However, certified carbon removals cannot be used to comply with the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
See the proposal for a regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/4d6 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)